Bel Niente nella Guerra
by Darkwood
Summary: Prelude to Gundam Wing timeline. Who was Lucrezia Noin before she joined Oz? How did she become an instructor at Lake Victoria, and how well has she known Zechs?
1. 1:1

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

**A/N:** _As some of you may know, and some of you may not, I'm a great fan of story – back story, continuations, vignettes we don't see within the carefully planned and orchestrated throws of a series. I also tend to be a bit of a romantic. (Not a fluff-mushy one, but a guns and heroism sort of love story addict.) While working on the massive edits that had to happen to the third and "final" installment of my story about Sally and Wufei, I had the fortune (or misfortune) of coming across the music by Joe Hisaishi from __Howl's Moving Castle. There are a lot of waltz-based songs in that soundtrack, and if you haven't heard it, I really suggest it to you._

_ANYWAY. The Theme from that movie struck a chord with me, and helped me to put down, furiously, the first ten or twenty pages of the story that I'm finally starting to post now. Thank my GW soundtracks, the Joe Hisaishi score from __Howl's, and my own personal avoidance of daily to-do lists._

_As the chapters, as I wrote them on my computer, come out to about 15-20 pages or so, I'm posting them here by POV switch as a start. This will alter a bit as the story goes on and I need more stuff to fill the chapters. I really dislike overly short or long chapters, and so I'm trying to keep people from being over (or under) whelmed._

That said… I don't own Gundam Wing.

Please enjoy.

* * *

**  
AC 192, June 11  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Outside, the rain fell softly. Upper level cadets were allowed, and could be awarded with a stipend, to live in on-base, non-dormitory housing. As the only female cadet at the Academy, and being ranked among the top five in her class, Lucrezia Noin had chosen the smart way.

Or perhaps it was just the easy way. Living in 'dormitory' housing among the cadets, as the only female, meant that she was living in rooms assigned generally to the librarians and the clerks, the non-combatant military personnel. She was pleased that these women were proud of her, but she could not quite accept that the backbone of any military organization was a bunch of women who did nothing more than swoon over their superiors and titter amongst themselves about marriage and retirement and children.

So she had applied to live elsewhere on the base, and because of her records, she had easily been given the necessary funds. It kept the male cadets from bothering her too much, or the excitable ladies from tittering too loudly when the boys came around to gawk at her like children would stare at a rare animal in a zoo. She could recall feeling their prying eyes even through the standard issue curtains she had been given. The female housing was all single-story units, much more home-like. Much easier for peeping toms.

She liked to think it was because they were more likely to be ignored in an attack… and a roof falling on you wouldn't necessarily mean you'd die right away. Or at least that you'd be less dead than if a barracks collapsed or blew up. Some sort of male over-protectiveness of some sort, she was sure. So moving out of the barracks had been, in a way, getting free of them keeping such a careful eye on her. Just like joining the Oz Academy had been a way to get free of her brother's watchful eye.

Her bravado, her ego, worked like that. She could be cocky and macho… but not in the rain. And unfortunately for her, Tanzania had four months of this sort of overcast, rainy weather. Straight.

The rain did not always overpower her so much as it did some days. Days like today when a little thunder crashed in the clouds overhead. On days like today, and thankfully it was a Friday this time when there were no required classes, she could not ignore her scarred spirit. All the strength she had gained in the three years since the battle… it all came crumbling down like some ancient piece of stone working. The rain eroded her foundations quicker than a sucker punch to the gut could bring her to her knees.

A year at the preparatory school where the other cadets did most of their scholastics, and another at the Specials Academy on Lake Victoria, and she had everything about the organization that she needed to know down to a science. Which instructors to study for, how to best pass PT exams, the proper way to disarm someone larger than her in fencing without ending up catching an 'accidental' flying elbow – the boys hated being shown up by a slender tomboy girl – even how to handle when she inevitably broke down. Her first roommate had been very good at comforting… a little too good. But before she'd moved out, Noin had taken the other woman's suggestion and gotten herself a comfortable set of clothes – warm sweats and a flannel robe – and bought herself a teapot.

Stupid, she thought to herself, how the little things could be such a comfort at times like these. She sat, as she had before during the past two years, and watched the continual fall of rain that blotted out the world that was the Lake Victoria Base. Even if she missed class, she never missed this show.

Lucrezia took a sip from the teacup, even though she knew her hand was shaking and that it wouldn't be long before the soft patter of the raindrops turned into the clatter of boots on cracked and broken stone. The panic attack was coming. The thunder was growing monstrous, turning into the crash of bombs as they exploded. The thunder the rumble of rubble as it collapsed, sinking into buildings. She leaned her head against her hands, her violet eyes cold and dead.

Her thoughts were lost in a haze of smoke thick enough that she still choked on it, coughing and spitting tea out on her hands, the honey doing nothing to ease her throat. 'Music,' she thought idly for the hundredth time since the rain had been able to snatch her into its panicked embrace. 'I should drown it out with music.'

But the memories would linger, waiting on some other trigger. Her body itched for activity, the feeling of some occupation, some movement that she could not seem to find as she sat with her nose pressed to the cool glass. A hundred times… twenty times… she'd lost count, but however many times, it was now two years worth of this.

Rising, she shrugged the robe from her shoulders and discarded the comfortable sweatshirt. The teacup settled with its steam swirling upwards towards the roof of her apartment and she ran a finger through her dark hair. It was longer, then, she thought absently. Longer and so much softer than the regulation issue soaps could make it. Her cheeks were fuller, her eyes brighter and not ringed with bags of tiredness. Her arms were strong… but nowhere near as strong as they had since become. She kicked her feet into her combat boots and shrugged on her camouflage jacket. The same tattered cap that she picked up from beside the firey building where her family…

No.

She jerked the door open and threw a leg over the bike leaning outside, not caring how wet the sweats got. In a while they would be even wetter. The ride to the PT training grounds was rocky, dangerous in the rain, but something she'd grown accustomed to after a year of it.

Her thoughts were angry as she tossed the bike down in the mud, her muscles shaking as she launched herself into the practice grounds. '_I was fourteen_,' she screamed mentally at them, the nameless invaders that destroyed her family's estate, her chest heaving as she moved through the obstacle course. '_What right did they have to take that life away from me?_'

But as usual the obstacle course had no answers for her. The rise and fall of her panicked, angry breathing was the only answer to her silent questions. The burn of her muscles the only indication that she was going way too fast through exercises that ought take much longer. A trained human body is still human, her muscles reminded her as she reached for the next rung and swung over to the rope wall.

And a human body can still give out.

Her grip faltered, she fell from the rope wall, six… seven feet at least into the mud pooling at the bottom of the course. The thud of her impact shook her right to the joints, and she knew, in this kind of weather, she'd be feeling that in the morning. But the pain, she knew as she tipped her head back, drinking in the damp fall air, is real, as the panic attack… as the memories… aren't.

She staggered to her feet and trudged over to where she left the bicycle, surprised to find someone standing there with it propped up. "Who's there?" she asked defensively, her hands flattening into weapons.

The person turned, and with the upturned collar moving, a familiar head of blond hair was revealed to her, though beneath it the owner's garments had otherwise changed. A thick black raincoat over a starched uniform, impressive though it lacked rank, and a pair of tall, shiny black boots. And the oddest thing of all was the shiny helmet that adorned the fair head. All that was left of the face that ought to be familiar was the lower half of it, but still she knew, unmistakably, who stood before her. A confident smile that was almost a smirk greeted her angry question, and a soft chuckle. "It's been a long time, Baronessa," the deepening voice said. "Two years, I'd think."

"You've changed," Lucrezia replied, swiping the hair from her face.

"I could say the same for you."

Spitting rainwater and mud from her mouth, Lucrezia stepped forward, reaching for the bicycle. "Yeah. Nice hat." She put a hand on the handlebars of the bike. "What are you _doing_ here?" she asked.

"The same thing as any other cadet," the deep voice said. He tilted his head slightly, and she could feel his blue eyes looking at her through the glass. "Training to be an elite soldier for Oz. I should think that would be obvious." He let her have the bicycle.

"You're getting mud on your fancy hat," Lucrezia replied waspishly. Of all the people to see… now… Tears stung her eyes, hot despite the falling of the raindrops that hit her face. Why this? Why now? He had always been easy to cry in front of…

"It was raining that day too," he replied. "You didn't say that to me then."

She turned the bike angrily and started the long walk up the rocky path back. "It's been two years, give me a break."

The last person she expected to see, at the worst possible time… and he was following her as she pushed the bike up the hill. She wanted to shout at him to go away, but the panic of the rain was still holding her in its damp grip. Overhead lightning cracked the sky and the roll of thunder that followed had its usual affect on her. Her hands gripped the handlebars of the bike tighter, but her footing slipped and her knee hit the ground hard, striking a rock.

She let out a frustrated grunt as she felt her skin break. A pair of strong hands helped her up. "I don't need your help, Zechs," Lucrezia snapped.

That was how she had been introduced to the pale blond haired young man with his lengthening fall of pale hair, in a much similar situation, but then…

"Let me help you," he replied in a gentle voice.

For a moment Lucrezia was tempted to push him away, but she looked down at her knee and saw that not only had the rock ripped her sweatpants and her skin, but there was enough blood to change the color of the mud on her pants leg. Grudgingly, she put her arm over his jacketed shoulder and let him help her back up the incline.

"What brings you to our little base? It's not enough to be the top cadet at the Czech training facility?"

"My unit commander recommended that I transfer from that facility." A soft chuckle came from somewhere in his pressed uniform, unimpaired and unaltered by the silver helmet he wore. "Apparently they believed I needed more competition." They trudged in silence for a moment, and his hand, gloved against the rain, took the bicycle from her completely. "I was surprised to learn that you had enlisted," he said softly.

"I guess I've come a long way from when you saw me last," Lucrezia snorted. "The whole world's turning into a battlefield," she said, trailing off and letting the two of them walk, again, in silence. It was not the best idea, she knew, when the raindrops and the thunder that threatened overhead kept calling memories back to the forefront of her mind.

It was easy to get lost in them… especially…

Especially with him so nearby.


	2. 1:2

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: _So I'm going to try to update this fairly regularly, if at all possible. Many thanks to JoJoDancer for the review. Encouragement is always helpful. I hope you enjoy the story as it unfolds. As far as I've been able to uncover, there's no real area that Noin is supposed to be from, except that she's considered to be vaguely Mediterranean. I decided she was Italian. Lombardia Province is in the northern, mountainous part of Italy._

* * *

**AC 190, August 15**  
Outside Bormio, Valle dell'Adda  
Bergamo Province, Lombardia, Italy 

The valley in which the Noin estate was situated had been a peaceful place for years. The Noin family was, while not well loved, tolerated and respected. They were good landlords to those who lived in the town, peaceful people who preferred to raise their children and tend their farmland rather than show off for the sake of the 'importance' of their title. Barone Ottaviano was the latest of the Noins to inherit the title and the lands that belonged to it. He was fortunate enough to have a son to entail the estate onto, and three daughters to soothe his wife as the son grew up and was sent from home.

It was unfortunate, perhaps, that the Barone was such a tolerant man. He was fair, and his tenants enjoyed having him as a landlord. As his family grew, he strengthened his ties with the people. As his children aged, he became more loved than his predecessors.

But it was his son who was the family's saving grace, and not his tolerant father. An uprising in another valley was causing some unrest, and Antonino Eusebio wanted troops sent to the valley to look after his family's lives and interests. He and his father quarreled on the subject several times. Ottaviano did not see the need for a military presence near the family. He did not mind that there were demonstrations going on, the villagers assured him that it had nothing to do with the family or the title.

Antonino abided his father's wishes uneasily, but finally when a friend relayed to him the severity of the danger involved in the situation, he defied his father and asked his friend to dispatch troops to look after things.

The orders were well delivered. The Alliance unit in charge of extraction was right on target when they were deployed to the Barone's estate… but they arrived too late to save either the inhabitants of the marble palazzio or the building itself. The rebels, the guerrillas, had made the governing noble's home their first target, and there was rubble strewn around the entrance, blocking it. The breva whirled about the ruined structure, casting sand and stone about the ruined, smoldering structure. The air was crisp, and the smoke was sharp as the soldiers approached it.

If the soldiers had been local, they would have understood why there was no one about the mansion's grounds or in the valley that day. The servants and hands were preparing to celebrate Ferragosto. What an unfortunate holiday it turned out to be.

The Barone and his family had likely not even known what was happening when the missile had blown the building in two, and what remained of the first and half of the second floors were little more than charred rubble, smoldering and smoking in the heavy rains that had started shortly after the attack on the city had begun. The unit commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Ahrme, surveyed the scene with his mouth set in a grim line. The rain was not improving his mood, which had turned sour as soon as he realized they had arrived too late.

The orders required a thorough search of the rubble that was the Barone's estate.

The Barone's son had ordered his family returned to him, alive or dead. He held sway with the star of the administration, Captain Treize Kushrenada, and so his wishes were carried out, even though his family was not so important to Romefellor as others. It was through the influence of that Kushrenada, and the loyalty of the soldiers to the leaders of that name alone that the Barone's youngest sister survived. The Alliance soldiers dug her out of the gun cellar where she had been putting away the weapons she had cleaned after her morning ride out to practice shooting in the forest. A bit of mortar had knocked her unconscious and kept her from blundering up into the force of the rocket's path. Otherwise, her older brother would have been truly alone.

* * *

Lucrezia Catarina Noin, the youngest child of Barone Ottaviano Noin, woke to find herself in a dimly lit tent on the edge of the low mountain ridges that ringed the valley where her family had lived. Her first sensation was that of disorientation, and then panic. Her head throbbed, pulsing with pain. She reached a hand up to find it bandaged, became aware of her clothing still on her shoulders, and her eyes moved around the tent wildly. 

Her father's hunting jacket was draped respectfully across the back of a nearby chair. Getting up slowly, she reached for it, and pulled it onto her shoulders. Her head throbbed, colors swimming in blackness at the edges of her vision. She grasped the jacket. The worn in gray leather would protect her from the weather outside, even though she didn't have the hat she normally wore with it to keep the rain off. A quick twist of her hair into a braid and she was able to tuck it under the collar of the jacket.

That did not help the devilish headache she could feel, and even the comfort of the jacket did not manage to fend off the encroaching sense of disorientation. Logic over-rode pain. Whoever's camp she was in would probably notice a woman… girl… wandering around. A gray figure with non-descript black hair would be less easy to identify. If only her father hadn't insisted she wear skirts when riding, perhaps this little escape she was planning would be easier. Somewhere, in the distance, there was thunder, and she could smell smoke on her clothing. She lifted the sleeve of the jacket and inhaled. She had to snatch her arm away as she was struck with an almost violent fit of coughing.

Her throat was raw, angry. She needed to get something to drink, something to eat… some water… some _anything_ to make it stop. Her head was dizzy, spinning. She had to sit down, and she made sure to, on the cot, before she pitched forward onto the floor. After a moment or two of breathing carefully, her coughing subsided and she could breathe normally again, on her own.

Footsteps neared the tent. The slap of boots on damp earth alerted her, echoing against the tent sides. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest, and another fit of coughing threatened. There was a voice, but it sounded vague to her. She got to her feet with a wobble and hid next to the opening of the tent, tense and waiting.

She was the Barone's daughter… how _dare_ someone…

In the distance there was more thunder.

A curious man pulled aside the tent flap and leaned in. His eyes widened and he turned to look. She timed her movements properly, pulling back her arm, and thrust her fist as hard as she could into his face.

The soldier, as she could now see the intruder was, tumbled forward into the space of her tent a shocked expression on his face. There was water on his uniform jacket, and a hat on his head. For a moment, as she dragged the body into the tent as quietly and best she could without falling over, she felt bad about what she was doing. And then she thought about… what she had heard before she had fallen. The shouting and screaming… the loud noises.

Her ears still rang. Her expression hardened into a grim one, and she debated, for a moment, taking his uniform. Her temples throbbed. Her body kept up with its reminders of her physical condition. It would take a lot of effort to disrobe the soldier. A lot of heaving, and some embarrassment…

Maybe just his jacket and hat…

And then she saw his sidearm, and decided against taking the man's clothes entirely. The weapon would be more than enough.

Stealing into the rain was easy. She tugged the back of the tent up. She didn't know how long until someone noticed that the soldier was absent… or until he woke up. Her punches, though formidable, were still the blows of an almost fifteen year old who learned to fight in the stables of her father's estate, and not the blows of a trained soldier.

For a moment, her vision threatened to blur from the wealth of emotion the thought of her father brought up, but she forced the sorrow down, biting back on it against her raw throat, and forced her dizzy, throbbing head to send the proper signals to her limbs. She moved quickly, or thought she did.

It was not long, or very far, before she ran into someone. And it was decidedly the wrong someone to run into. But thankfully, as her vision blurred, again, that someone decided to be merciful, and her body was kept from falling to the wet ground when she swooned. "Now where did you come across this, I wonder?" a calm voice asked.


	3. 1:3

**Bel Niente nella Guerra **

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: I blame Harry Potter for the slowness of this update. (We had an HP7 book event at my job, and it ate a lot of my time. I got sick and am in the process of recovering as I post this.)

I am greatly encouraged by the reviews and the watches and the favoriting. Thank you all. As a response to some reviews:

To AVAAntares – I know that Noin's canon rank is Baronet. You're right, it's not normally given to a woman, not just in Italy, but in general. But baronet is her Romefellor rank. Baronet is actually not a royal title, it's usually an elevated landowning position similar to (without the fighting) a knight. At _this_ point in the story, her brother is in Romefellor, but she isn't.

To JoJoDancer: I'm always interested in the characters that play important roles, but don't seem to get the proper setup / story time they deserve. I am a fan of both Noin and Sally.

* * *

**AC 192, June 11**  
Lake Victoria Special Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania 

"You don't need to struggle so much," Zechs said as they finished walking her bicycle back to the building where she was staying. He had charge of the bicycle, and her weight was mostly on his shoulder.

He had grown to have broader shoulders, since they last spoke, and he had gained muscle to his frame since then. Before he had somewhat strained to carry her. Now, and admittedly she had lost some weight, now she seemed nothing to him. Lucrezia put a hand on the side of the doorframe and swallowed against the nausea and dizziness that threatened to drag her into a nightmare.

"You've lost a bit of blood," Zechs commented, glancing down at the tear in her sweatpants. "You should get that looked at."

"I just need to sit down," Lucrezia said, fumbling in the pocket of her fatigue jacket for her keys.

His strong hand reached into her pocket when her hand went got past fumbling and started to grope blindly, and for a moment his gloved fingers closed around hers before he took the keys from her pocket and unlocked the front door. "Let's get you inside then."

To her ears, his voice sounded older than he had any right to, but she was too grateful for the guiding arms that moved her over to the kitchen chair and sat her down to protest. Zechs leaned her back in the chair a little and propped her leg up on the table.

"Scissors and your first aid kit?" he asked.

"Under the sink," she said, motioning with a hand idly.

He unbuttoned the rain gear the rest of the way and took it off, laying it over the back of the only other chair in the kitchen. Before moving to collect the items he was looking for he also removed the silver helmet from his head. He found scissors in a drawer before returning to pull the chair over so he can inspect the damage the rock did. Zechs unlaced the combat boot on her foot and tugged it off, waiting for a reprimand, but as his blue eyes reached the pale skin of her face, he saw that she had her eyes closed, and either wasn't paying attention, or knew better than to argue about having her wound looked at.

Outside the thunder rumbled, and the lightning flashed across the dark, cloudy sky.

The scissors cut through the bloody, muddy mess of her sweatpants, and Zechs's hands gently prodded the dirty cut before he got out the iodine and began to clean away the area around the wound. It was shallower than he had anticipated with the amount of blood she had lost, but her face remained lax and her head hung where it was tipped backwards. Loss of consciousness was not good, but he suspected it had less to do with the blood loss and more to do with the storm.

After all, the day he had met her she had been in much the same state. Drenched, muddy… stunning. In two years all that seemed to have changed about her was that she lacked tears streaming down her cheeks, and there was no blush when she met his eyes.

And the haircut.

He sighed softly to himself as he spread the antibiotic cream over her cut and reached for a bandage to cover her cool skin with. It was best, he thought, best that this infatuation was one sided. It would make coexisting at this school more simple if she was detached from him, if what he had glimpsed in her grateful young eyes had died in her or been buried by her anger. It appeared to be gone. If not dead, it was pushed aside by purpose. If only it were so easy for him to do something similar. But it wasn't. His own anger burned too hot, it raged too fiercely. He was afraid that if he allowed that fire to take any more hold in him, to rid him of this emotion, it would devour what remained of the young idealist that had survived a revolution.

In truth, they were similar. His broken home had simply been larger… his sibling…

No.

_**NO.**_

Zechs Merquise had no siblings, had no family. He was simply the adopted relative of Treize Kushrenada, a wild thing taken in under the wing of a noble who would soon be a prince.

And there was nothing to suggest that a young woman of the station of Baronessa Lucrezia Noin would be interested in such a man as he would one day become… or that she had any right to chose a man for herself at all.

Chose a man?

He thought he could laugh at himself. Such romantic thoughts were uncommon to him. It was not his station to be so whimsical. He was sixteen. She was… what, perhaps that? Or was she older? Seventeen…?

But still, out of place or no… the Baronessa… His lips played in a slight smile at the thought of his little nickname for her. The Baronessa was beautiful. She was passionate… firey. He had glimpsed it the day they met, two years prior… and it had been reinforced that rainy afternoon.


	4. 1:4

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Here's hoping the time changes don't throw people in between these chapter breaks, but it was really the only way to keep the "chapters" from spanning way too much read time. Enjoy!

* * *

**AC 190, August 17**  
Sachsen State, Germany  
Kushrenada Estate 

The second time she woke there was someone seated nearby, and the hunting jacket was absent. A subtle reminder of her failed escape. The white dressed nurse was not wearing a firearm that Lucrezia could find visible. However, the youngish looking woman _was_ sound asleep. The room itself was expensively furnished, dark, and rather on the large side. If she'd been kidnapped, she reasoned, at least it was by someone rich.

It really did not offer the consolation that _not_ being kidnapped might have.

The bandages on her head were gone, replaced by tabs to hold the broken skin together and encourage proper healing. It was her forehead that had been struck, over her right eye. She slid a hand across the wound, and knew there would be scarring. Her long cable of dark hair had been undone, but no one had bothered to change her clothes.

That fact reassured her. If she _had_ been kidnapped… _had_ she been kidnapped? It didn't really matter. Wherever they, whoever they were, were keeping her, she was not staying.

If they hadn't changed her clothes, it meant no one knew about the knife she always kept on her when she went out hunting. Tears threatened her eyes, and again she rose from the bed where she had been laid to recover. Her head spun and threatened her warningly, but she took a moment to orient herself, and let her head stop pounding. Then she started walking. This time she had no boots on her feet, and moved silently in her socks as she made her way to the door. She found when she pressed her ear to the door that there were voices outside.

Her heart hammered in her chest, and she could hear it in her head. Obviously, whatever had hit her had done so hard enough to give her a concussion… but she didn't take the time to worry about that. She waited for the voices to fade, and then, carefully, she turned the ornate handle on the door and checked the hallway.

The room she had been slumbering in was dim, but the hallway was bright. Her eyes hurt as they caught the glare of the lights that lined the hallway, and she had to shield them as she made her way quietly into the corridor.

There was thick carpet, and, as she made her way down towards the direction the voices had been going, she could see that the building, wherever she was, had rich furnishings. The end of the hallway widened and there was a broad staircase that swept downwards. The walls were lined with windows. Outside it was still raining.

She could hear voices again, but her ears were still ringing… she couldn't tell which way they were coming from. The decorations were similar to the palazzo where her father had lived, she decided in an instant as she hurried down the stairs. Just before the curve would reveal her to anyone downstairs, the curtains fell thickly just on the side of the windows. She ducked behind them, knowing that whoever was talking would see the motion in the thick drapery if they were looking at it. But she also knew how little inhabitants of this sort of a place paid attention to such things.

* * *

"Your youngest sister survived," Treize related in a sober voice. The nineteen-year-old, ginger-haired military captain was keeping pace with a taller, dark haired man with pale skin. "Regrettably, the Alliance extraction unit did not arrive in time to save your whole family."

"It is more regrettable to me than it will ever be to them," was the dark haired man's reply. Antonino Euseibo Noin was as tall as the Romefellor captain, but had a different bearing to him entirely. His head was bowed, and he watched the carpet passing before his feet as it passed away out of sight.

"I am only sorry I was unable to be a better help to you. The intelligence we received was late getting to me, and even then it took time to organize the order…"

"You are a better friend than someone such as myself has right to look for in an organization like Romefellor," Antonino said, cutting across Treize's apology.

"Antonino, you mustn't blame yourself for the short-sightedness of others. The protection of your family was a regrettable oversight on the part of my superiors when they recognized the talents that you possess."

The dark haired man's lips spread into a melancholy smile. "Then when you are in power, see to it that you do not make a similar mistake in dealing with your subordinates."

"You have my assurances. Not everyone in Romefellor takes death so lightly." The two men walked down the hallway towards the staircase that lead to the second floor, past portraits of ancestors, their polished boots making little noise on the thick carpeted floors.

"Thank you for taking such personal care of her," Antonino said as they began to ascend the first of the stairs. "I undoubtedly would have lost track of her if you had not made sure that she was brought to your residence instead of taken to an Alliance hospital facility."

"I had no intention of relinquishing the family of a personal friend to incompetence of that caliber. If they could not properly defend them, or see to their rescue, I doubt very much that they would be able to heal them. And after encountering your sister's cunning, I doubt they could have held her safely."

"Cunning?" came the other man's reply.

"Your younger sister had disarmed one of the guards and taken possession of his firearm."

"_**Luc**_," Antonino said in an annoyed tone.

"Is that her name? You rarely spoke of your sisters."

"My youngest sister," Antonino said, "Lucrezia Catarina. Father indulged her taste for sportsmanship… she is proficient with such weapons."

"Interesting indeed," Treize replied, pausing as they reached the top of the stairs and turned down the hallway towards the room in which the girl had been left to recover. He frowned for a moment as he saw the nurse that had been assigned to the room stumble into the hallway.

"Master Treize!" the woman called out, moving down the hallway towards the two men. "Thank goodness you're here. The young lady… she's missing from her bed!"

"My father's indulgence was tempered by extreme patience," Antonino replied. "It was a part of his downfall."

"Your younger sister continues to intrigue me, Antonino." Treize regarded the nurse as he spoke. "Order the servants to search the mansion from top to bottom. She was suffering from shell shock and a concussion, according to the Alliance field medic that treated her. He also had little to say about the black eye that she gave him. Tell them to be cautious."

A frown creased Antonino's handsome face, spreading upwards from his lips to encompass the entirety of his countenance.

"There is no loss of face, Barone," Treize said. "The rest of my family is away at the moment, and the only other inhabitant of the house is my foster brother."

"I was unaware you had a foster brother."

"You did not speak of your siblings to me, and so I did not speak of mine to you," Treize replied. "Do not be alarmed, he is also a member of the Romefeller, your sister is in little danger from the likes of Zechs Merquise."

* * *

Again the dull voices faded, and Lucrezia felt it safe enough to venture out of her hiding place. She continued down the stairs, glad to find the halls almost a ghostly empty, and headed for the nearest set of doors that did not appear to lead into an interior room.

If her hearing had been better, perhaps she would have heard when someone followed her, and if her senses were more collected, perhaps she would have thought to find shoes and a jacket against the rain. But her scrambled head simply demanded freedom, which required flight, and given an opportunity, she took it.

Lucrezia slipped down the front steps and took off at a run across the front lawn. The rainwater fell cold, and wet the late fall of wherever she was. The rain must have been falling for a while, the grass under her feet was cold and slick. It wasn't until she reached the edge of the lawn that she heard the fall of boots over the rainfall.

Someone was following her.

Whirling, she reached into the cinched waist of her riding skirt and drew the short knife she kept there. Her eyes struggled to focus in the overcast light. Dimly, she was aware that she should not be having such a difficult time focusing her eyes… but then she found the source of the noise that had been following her.

The person following her did not appear to be a soldier, despite his crisp attire. Her throbbing mind raced. The nurse had worn no real uniform… other than that of a house staff person.

Her grip on the knife became unsteady as her eyes focused on the young man who had pursued her.

He did not _look_ bad. His clothes were formal, well-pressed, but they appeared to be that of a school uniform rather than a military one. His expression was gentle… concerned. His hands were lifted in a gesture that was calming. He was unarmed. He had blue eyes and the palest blond hair she had ever seen. He did not look bad at all.

A light off to the side caught her eye, and Lucrezia turned her head to see that the front door was opened again, and there were more people coming out of the house. The grip she had on her knife tightened, and she lunged forward with it. Whoever had her was _not_ going to get to keep her!

Anger fogged her eyesight worse than the blur from pain and the weather. She closed her eyes and waited for the stunned young man to grasp in pain, for the blade to sink into flesh… she closed squeezed her eyes shut tightly against it. She had never struck a human being before.

After a moment, she realized that she hadn't hit anything, and she opened her eyes. Her arm had passed under the other young man'. He had caught it against his side. Letting out a frustrated grunt, she jerked her arm to try and get it free. Noise was assaulting her… the haze of the rain and…

He was talking. She looked up at him, and as her eyes focused on his lips, she could make out his voice. "…not going to hurt you," he was saying.

"Do you know what they did!" she screamed at him. It still hurt, her throat… but there was no coughing that threatened.

He was shocked to hear her voice, and let go of her arm in the process of lifting his hands peacefully again. But he gave her too much of an opening. She pulled her arm free and slashed at him with the knife, retreating towards the trees when he dodged her attacks.

Past him, she could see that the people from the house were closer. She could make out their uniforms. Servants… And beyond them… two tall figures dressed in stately jackets…

Her footing gave way. Whatever she stepped on wasn't secure in the moist earth, and she fell backwards. Her eyes were trained on the tall figures… one of them was familiar. Tears came to her eyes as she hit the ground heavily. Her brother…

His voice was distant, cold. Disapproving.

Just as always, only she couldn't hear it well.

The same young man… the blond youth with bright blue eyes, knelt at her side in the muddy dirt of the unmanicured part of the estate's grounds. "Let me help you," he said in a kind voice.

The voice reached her ears. It was the first words she could truly hear since waking up in strange places. His voice was low, and as calming as his gestures had attempted to be. Antoni was close, this man… boy, she corrected her fuzzy mind, couldn't hurt her now. The knife fell from her fingers, and she took the hand he offered. Her head was still pounding, her chest heaving from the exertion of running the length she had from the estate. It was farther, now that she looked back at it.

The young man pulled her up to her feet, but too quickly. Her spinning head felt overwhelmed, and the ringing quieted down to let in sound in a rush… too much sound.

"Easy with her," the strange tall man said. "She's got a concussion."

The commanding voice of the strange man was a sharp counterpoint to the soft assistance of the boy that had a grip on her. It was the last thing she heard clearly. The stern eyes of her brother swam into view as he stepped towards the two of them, and the murmurs from the servants caught up to her. She shut her eyes, and felt herself go slack again.

* * *

"She has spirit," Treize said as the servants moved quickly back up to the main building of the estate. The four of them followed more slowly. Treize and Antonino lead the way.

"I take it, then, that this is your foster brother?"

"Zechs Merquise," the young man said. He followed behind the two older men, carrying the damp young woman he had just caught from fainting.

"Zechs, may I introduce Barone Antonino Eusebio Noin and his sister, Lucrezia Catarina."

"And may I apologize for my sister's hasty attack upon you," Antonino said without turning to regard the young man.

Zechs watched their backs as they moved. Treize appeared, as usual, to be tense, but only as much as he ever was to maintain his guardedness, but the older man… Antonino, his back was stiff, and his shoulders pinched upwards as though he had recently pulled a nerve. "Apology accepted, Barone," he said.

The older men seemed preoccupied, and both walked in silence ahead of him. The rain did not seem to hurry either of them. It was as though they did not care about the dampness of their clothes or the disarray of their state as they moved up the front steps. One of the servants was waiting and opened the doors for them.

"This time I think she will be sooner in waking," Treize said. "Let's retire to the sitting room. She can lay down in there, and we can hope she decides not to run again."

"She is probably frightened. Our father did not allow a military presence in the house around us as we grew up. Guards were kept outside and at the stables, but were not allowed in with the family and the servants. To find herself in the power of one after an attack of that magnitude undoubtedly scared her. And then to wake a second time, days later, in yet another unfamiliar locale… we may not get along as well as you and your foster brother, but I do not think she will run if she sees that I am nearby."


	5. 1:5

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: I blame Harry Potter for the slowness of this update. (We had an HP7 book event at my job, and it ate a lot of my time. I got sick and am in the process of recovering as I post this.)

I am greatly encouraged by the reviews and the watches and the favoriting. Thank you all. As a response to some reviews:

To oxArchangelxo : I'm glad the time skips are working for you. I'm hoping that having the years / dates posted whenever it changes is good enough to keep it from hurting anyone's brain. And yeah, I figured that given the amount of butch she seems to put off sometimes, it was a logical nickname for her.

To Thawn716: I'm a fan of prequels, when they work. I'm hoping this continues to.

* * *

**AC 192, June 11**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania 

In-processing. Zechs turned to look out the window over her small kitchen sink. He was missing in-processing. He returned his eyes to the young woman slouched, as she was, in a chair at her kitchen table. Leaving her like that would be cruel… and give her a very stiff neck.

He looked around for something, and found the flannel robe she had been wearing earlier, hung haphazardly on the back of the bathroom door. Something bothered him, as he looked at her muscled frame, the fall of her shorter hair. Why Lake Victoria? South Africa was a long way from the rejuvenated palazzo where Barone Antonino was staying…

Returning to the small kitchen, which was in the same room as the living room in the cramped student apartment, his eyes were drawn to the bareness of the walls. Even at the preparatory school he just transferred from, most of the students had some sort of wall decoration up.

But not the Baronessa. And not him either.

Perhaps _that_ was the point. Perhaps Lake Victoria _because_ it was so far from the civility of Europe. Only a short skip in a transport, true, but without that it could be on another planet, for all that the two worlds were connected. Perhaps there were no posters because there was nothing to hold on to that had a poster. Or nothing worth mentioning.

He recalled the mild amusement in Treize's voice when they last spoke. _'And it seems our little Baronessa has gotten in as the first female allowed to attend Oz's Lake Victoria Training Academy.'_ Zechs had known his foster brother for six years, and in that time, they had both grown up, and the easy early camaraderie had slowly begun to fade away.

Something had happened when Treize turned seventeen… the older man hadn't been the same since then.

Hesitant hands undid the front of her dirty fatigue jacket. Zechs decided there was no way to do anything about her tattered, muddy sweatpants, but he did her the favor of getting her other boot and sock off before he wrapped her in the robe and lay her on her bed.

As he crossed into the main room to collect his helmet, jacket and gloves, he became aware of the mess that was on them. A frown creased his lips. His face evened out into an impassive expression after a moment as he invented some story about getting lost in the rain that would cover his tardiness and his dirty uniform. He buttoned up his jacket and glanced into the bedroom at where she lay.

Her chin tipped to one side, and her hands pulled the robe more tightly around her. Watching her action made him frown. He did not know what to take the motion as.

That notwhithstanding, he really did not have the time to sort out his feelings, and he really ought not to be intruding on her personal space while she was asleep. Or at all, he reprimanded himself.

The rain pounded on the roof of the small building. She shifted again, her brow furrowed. He restrained himself from moving in her direction. '_Be well, Baronessa,_' he thought to her, knowing that talking could easily wake her from her slumber. Tender feelings, he decided, were best kept secret, and smothered. There were much stronger feelings to do such a task for him, and it would cost him little to let her drown in the anger that he felt. '_And… farewell._' Without another pause, Zech placed his helmet back on his head and departed the small apartment.

End Chapter One


	6. 2:1

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thus begins chapter two. I'm in my next to last quarter of graduate school and we just got past midterms. Yay me. Please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

** AC 192, July 7**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Early morning drills, Lucrezia found, were the best part of the military day. Studying and exams were one thing, a good part of the required year of accelerated preparatory education prerequisite to enlisting in the Alliance Special Forces Training was spent taking a cram course in pre-collegiate higher level education courses, but she was glad that finally, at sixteen, she was allowed to let go of that sort of boring thought. It suited her temperament to be up before dawn and working out her anger through drills and sparring.

The boys couldn't complain about her getting special treatment. She was twice as often bruised and less in the infirmary. She was good at sparring – she had fire and she had speed because of her small size – but she was out of her league when she was paired with some of the larger cadets. At first, she had complained about it, silently, to one or two of the cadets she was friendly with, but then one of her friends, a more quiet, thoughtful one, said something to change her mind on the subject.

* * *

**AC 192, May 3**

"Vostov is twice my size," Lucrezia said as they sat in cafeteria with their first aid manuals open. She flipped a page in her manual with vehemence. The hand she flipped the page with had bruises on the knuckles and connected to a swollen wrist.

Lucrezia sat at a table with three of her other members of her unit, quizzing one another on the upcoming First Aid evaluation. To her left sat Hadrian Affe, a good-natured young man with a sharp sarcastic streak in him. Across from him sat Peter Stangel, a quiet, studious young man with a mop of reddish orange hair. Aside form Lucrezia, he spent the most time with his books of the four of them. Beside Peter, and across from Lucrezia sat Giustino Savoy, another Italian, a duca who had been given his father's title on the man's death some months earlier. It engendered the two of them to one another, and despite the lack of time for socializing, their common land and their common loss was enough to make them as decent of friends as was possible in the regimented environment.

It was Savoy who asked her, quite honestly, and without looking up from his book when he spoke, "Why do you expect special treatment when it comes to sparring, when you seem to roll with the rest of the punches uncomplainingly?" At the end of his question, he finally looked up at her. His brown eyes met hers evenly, unassuming. He was curious.

She sputtered and fumbled for an answer. Her reward for that was a grin from the young Duca.

"Don't you think it's the least bit unfair?" Hadrian asked, taking some notes down from his manual on how to set a bone break properly. "It would be like putting Stangel into a match with an elephant."

Affe was very careful not to say what he had once, which was that, _She is just a girl, afterall._ The reaction to that had been uncomfortable for the small knot of early friends, and it ended even less comfortably. Lucrezia had turned and given him a black eye. It had resulted in a fist fight, Hadrian not one to take being hit by anyone, let alone another cadet, and both had black eyes and split lips before anyone interrupted them. That was the attitude that Lucrezia adopted towards anyone who saw the gender instead of the uniform she wore. It worked, for the most part. It had certainly worked with Stangel and Savoy.

Savoy…

"None of us are sparring with elephants," Savoy said. "Besides, in combat, no one worries about being evenly matched with their opponents. In war," he paused a moment on that word, emphasizing it for his friends, "not being evenly matched is what wins the day. More guns, better equipment, hope and heart… I envy you, Noin."

It was strange hearing herself called by her last name and having it pronounced properly, after so much time hearing it butchered. Duca Savoy was another native of Italy, and so his accent was impeccable in regards to that. They were somewhat closer friends than she was with either Affe or Stangel, because of it.

"Envy me?" she looked at him with the deadpan of disbelief on her face. "Why the hell would you do that?"

Savoy smiled at her. "You get into fights that are harder… you get the chance to toughen up."

"You mean she gets laid flat more often than we do," Stangel said, surprising his compatriots by speaking from between the pages of the book he seemed to have grafted onto the lower half of his face.

Affe chuckled, and Lucrezia made a face. "Glasses has a point," Affe offered amiably. "You get the crap knocked out of you, but you just get up and go tearing back into them."

"What, am I supposed to lay there and take it?" she quipped back, snapping the tip of her pencil on the paper pad she was taking notes on.

"No," Savoy said. "But it does illustrate what you are made of most affectively. And I envy you that sort of tenacity."

"And the marks," Stangel said with a sigh.

"Well I don't envy the sore she's got to be at the end of the day," Affe said. "Are we going to study or chatter?"

* * *

**AC 192, July 7**

Lucrezia wolfed down her breakfast with the rest of them, her boy cropped hair and slender, muscle knotted figure letting her blend in, for the most part. Her superior marks in targeting practice and all the field examinations were ignored as they moved past the boot camp part of their training and into the true reason for joining the Specials.

The true 'glory of Oz'.

She snorted as she stacked her tray with the other cadets', bending to pick up her notebooks with her swollen hands. The mobile suit. She filed along with the rest of the students, moving into her first session with the advanced military personnel. Savoy filed in behind her, followed by Stangel and Affe. The four C Company cadets brought up the first of the cadets to head into the lecture hall.

Special Training Orientation. The first officer involved in her Oz training. Master Sergeant… something…

"I'm going to start this by telling you brats that if you were glad to graduate PT training, you should turn right around and go back. There's nothing you will ever learn about after PT that is any more important than what you should have learned about yourself through it."

Another hardass. Lucrezia did her best not to show her boredom at being reminded of the inner strength that all the discipline of PT must have instilled upon them. It didn't hurt the officer's case that this evening was the first of her free nights, and instead of going over homework, she was required to move into the barracks _and _attend a function at her brother's side.

'_Antoni, can't you just leave me alone?_'

"Duty roster for this rotation," the officer snapped. "Alpha – Mobile Suit Basics, Beta – Field Tactics, Charlie – Hand Weaponry, Delta – Field Medicine. Cadets!"

Along with every other seated and sprawling student in the class, and a second ahead of most, Noin sprang to her feet, back straight, and snapped a salute.

"DISMISSED!"

Checking her notes, she made a face. 'At least it's not field medicine again,' she rolled her eyes as she shuffled out the door with the other cadets pushing on all sides of her. 'What will I ever use that for?'

In the hall, she heard the boys laughing with one another. Affe and Stangel drifted away from her in the press of cadets, but Savoy followed at her side silently. She didn't respond to his presence, and let the words of the other cadets flow around her without interacting with them.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sprigs can be so full of himself. Did you hear his PT sermon?"

"Yeah, I heard from one of the upper classmen that he gives that to the pleabs at the start of every rotation."

The voices of the other cadets echoed in the hallway around her, and were nearly impossible to drown out. She tried. "I can't wait until I'm not a pleab anymore. Less of this shouting crap and more getting saluted to!" She failed.

"Children," Savoy muttered. Lucrezia turned her eyes to him for a moment, and he shrugged. "I am headed to the library to do some reading up on the manuals, would you like to join me?"

She slowed her footsteps and let the boys push past her. It was a good moment to roll the ball of her ankle and try to get some feeling back into it from sitting for so long. She turned it during her beloved PT that morning, but time did not permit her to get any aspirin before morning ranks.

As she stretched, her dark eyes regarded Savoy for a moment, as though she were trying to figure something about him out. He was handsome enough, she figured. Too handsome. She wasn't at Lake Victoria for handsome countrymen, she was here for revenge. He watched her, and when she took too long to answer, he shrugged and headed off, waving as he got a distance away.

Too caught up in her thoughts to pay attention to his departure, she missed the guarded look he threw in the direction of someone standing past her.

Finally, she started walking towards a door at the other end of the hall. She shook her head and muttered aloud, "Boys."

"I was always led to believe that it was customary for girls to be more interested in their male counterparts."

Turning, Lucrezia was surprised to find Zechs walking at about her pace down the hallway. She closed her eyes a moment to gain composure before she spoke, "Most girls don't decide to join the Specials," she replied evenly.

Discussions with Zechs, she found, were stimulating and dangerous. Unlike Savoy, who she felt akin to, Zechs she felt challenged by. He had seen her unguarded, hurt… He had seen her when she was weak. There were things that neither of them could say in the cramped Lake Victoria Specials Academy. It had never been cramped before he came. She had been an oddball, but there had been no one to think she was other than someone who shared a name with a formerly prominent family. Most of the other cadets at the academy were not of a mindset to care about nobility, or who had what to their names. Even Savoy, whose name suggested more than just a duchy in his future, seemed to care less for his title and more for his drills. But there were few at the Academy who were 'of the blood' or of any blood to speak of.

She wondered about Zechs, however.

"True enough."

The two walked side by side in silence for a moment. Neither touched the other, even despite the press of bodies. The crowded hallway passed away behind them as they made their way into the outdoors. Lucrezia held any even moderately personal conversation until they reached the outside of the building, and then she began a brusque, "Thank you, for before…"

"Consider it a service to a friend," he replied, continuing to walk beside her.

Lucrezia turned to look at him. He spoke with the same silver smooth tongue as her brother did when he was speaking to someone important. "Just because Treize and my brother are friends means nothing. I don't expect special treatment from you."

"I'm a cadet, just like you," Zechs replied, holding a hand up in attempt to placate her rebuttal and forestall her anger. "There's nothing to get so worked up about. You may be a soldier, but it doesn't mean you can't be a lady as well."

Lucrezia let out a growl. "What would you know about it?" she demanded, stalking off towards where her bicycle was to return to her small apartment. On top of having her first day off of PT duties and her brother's invitation, she was also being required to move into the normal barracks.

His Excellency, Adalwulf Kushrenada, did not permit his future Oz soldiers to be indulged in anything, even separate housing for female cadets. It 'built character', as the letter she had received informed her, to house the female students in the environment they would be expected to excel in after graduation.

'Assuming we graduate,' Lucrezia had grudgingly retorted in her mind as she spent the dawn hours packing her belongings to move back into the barracks. At least she would not be expected to shower 'with her unit', but only to be present 'with her unit' at all times, for all inspections. And if she _was_, well, she was certain Antoni would throw an even bigger fit.

The only thing she hadn't packed was what she needed to ready herself for the evening. Her brother's gift of the 'proper attire' was welcome, mostly, and chiefly, because of the gloves included with the ball gown. She didn't even care what color it was, so long as it disguised, as she was sure it would, her overly muscled body and battered fingers.

His words on the phone had been very stern. _Be present at your front gate promptly at six o'clock, you are not the only person who will be traveling in the limousine, if you are the last to arrive I will be more than cross with you, Luc. Farsi bella__[1__, hai capito__[2_

'That name,' she sighed. Her brother insisted on dressing her as a girl when he had made it abundantly clear that she was turning out to be more of a boy. He insisted that until she got this 'nonsense' of being a soldier out of her head, he would address her, privately, as the boy she seemed to desire to be.

He didn't understand. Antoni grew up at their father's elbow, learning politics and proper etiquette. He could play piano, he had learned to waltz, he could even diffuse a dangerous conversation. As the youngest of four children, Lucrezia had grown up in her older siblings' shadows. Antoni's was longest. She had not Ermete's talent for words or music, and she was not half as beautiful as the darling Ines. Her features were not soft, and her manners were not dainty. Had she been a son, she would have rivaled Antoni, but as she was a daughter… she only felt that others found her behavior unacceptable. She felt scorn, because she wasn't the family's son, but their youngest daughter.

Her father, Ottaviano, had agreed with her when she came, crying, one day to his study and argued that she should have been born a boy, to save him the trouble. He was a kind man, and he had indulged her little joke with herself. '_Well then, Luc,_' and he had said it ever so much more endearingly than Antoni ever did, '_I shall count you as one as long as you like._'

And so she had learned to fire pistols and get into fistfights. She could ride a horse both astride _and _ sidesaddle (her father's precaution lest they be forced to entertain foreign nobility), and she had been allowed to lend a hand to the farmers when they were at work in the fields. Her brother and sisters detested her wildness, but her father and mother adored it.

Her mother had even learned to play along, though she never stopped forcing the same lessons on her as she had her sisters. Over the many years, the six that had passed between her father's indulgence and his demise, she had learned, in secret of them all, how to be a lady. She waltzed with the stable hands, she played piano at the restaurant.

Her swollen fingers turned the locks on the door, and pulled the curtains over the kitchen sink.

Those days were over, and all that was left of them was the tomboy that had grown out among the weeds of the fields. The proper young lady, always kept in hidden away in darkness, seemed to have traded darkness for a coffin. The lady was dead.

Lucrezia headed into the shower and scrubbed the scent of the base from her skin, raking a comb through her hair. All she could think of as she moved through the motions of getting dressed and done up for the festivities that evening was that she had better not be late for the next morning's class… and…

She had to laugh as she fastened the ball gown on. And, she thought privately, that Antoni would never forgive what she had them do to her hair.

* * *

Italian Phrasebook for Chapter 2:

[1 Farsi bella – Italian "make yourself pretty / doll yourself up"

[2 hai capito? – Understand?


	7. 2:2

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Hopefully now we can get on a more regular release schedule for this chapter. Yay for stuffs.

* * *

**AC 192, July 7**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

"Do try to keep up, Zechs," Treize said as the two of them headed out of the barracks and towards the gate where they were to meet the limo. "We're not the only ones riding into the city to be transported to the yacht."

"What do you mean?" Zechs asked as he stopped with Treize near the portal to the outside world. On base, it was easy to forget that the whole of humanity wasn't breathing and drilling and working and sleeping within the compound. "I wasn't aware that any of the other cadets…"

Treize let out a small. "Surely you can think of at least one."

Waiting patiently at Treize's elbow, Zechs let out a sigh. He certainly had not expected the man to show up that afternoon, no matter what else he had done improperly in regards to handling speaking to his Baronessa… but, as usual, his foster brother was full of explanations and charming smiles after the initial, awkward pleasantries.

There was a function that both of them had to attend, he as the heir to the Kushrenada house, and Zechs as a fosterling of the family of some 'distant and noble blood'. It was a sort of coming out for the foster brother.

Treize Kushrenada was the only one that truly knew Zechs's secret among the Alliance. The rest of the Kushrenada family had been kept in the dark, and false papers had been secured for him through various illegal means when he was young enough to pass for anyone's child. By now it was so long ago engrained in their minds that he was someone less than the prince that he was that they gave no thought to him. But day by day, Zechs knew that he looked more and more like Milliardo Peacecraft… like the man whose picture hung above a burnt out fireplace.

And there would soon be no hiding it without the helmet that Treize had seen fit to gift him with when he had informed his foster brother of his transfer to the Lake Victoria Academy.

* * *

**AC 192, May 31**  
Alliance Specials' Training Base  
Prague

"I thought, given the circumstances of your chosen path," Treize said upon presenting the shining helmet to Zechs, "that perhaps a bit of camouflage was in order."

The two were standing in the dormitory room Zechs had been granted at the Prague Alliance Special Training Facility. The bare room was made even more sparse by the packing of his few personal affects. His duffle had been tied up tight in preparation for the plane ride, and he was dressing in the last of his uniform pieces on his way to the transport that would take him to Africa. Glancing up at Treize, Zechs had narrowed his eyes slightly and he fastened the tie of his Oz dress uniform around his neck. The Czech Base, and its attached academy, required that dress be worn during any travel functions.

"Wear this from now on, Zechs," Treize said, setting a silver plated helmet on the desk next to where he was leaning against the wall. "There are people within Romefeller that will recognize the combination of your pale hair and eyes, since you refuse to cut your hair. They smell out schemes better than I give them credit for, and I would hate for my underestimation of them to get you into any dangerous situations. Who knows who you may meet at the Lake Victoria Academy."

Pulling the black jacket onto his shoulders, Zechs glanced at Treize. "Is this entirely your own doing?"

"The Barone recognized you at the estate when you visited. Apparently he takes after his middle namesake, and studied the families of the monarchies of Europe extensively. There is significantly less danger of others discovering your identity, however… I would prefer to be safe."

"It's only my life," Zechs replied dully. He stared at the mask for a long moment, buttoning the shiny buttons on the front of his uniform. He pulled on a set of white gloves, an indulgent mark of his aristocratic background that he wore at times of formality and ceremony, and then lifted the helmet to look at it.

"Milliardo?" Treize said, watching his younger friend in confusion.

"That name died when I decided to join the military and fight," the sixteen year old young man said in a harder voice than Treize was accustomed to hearing from the soft spoken foster brother. He fitted the helmet on his head and adjusted it until it was, if not comfortable, at least not painful. "If this is what is required," he said, "then this is what is required."

"I'm glad you can be objective about being constrained," Treize replied, standing to his full height and setting his shoulders. "Let's get going."


	8. 2:3

Bel Niente nella Guerra

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Short chapter, I intend to post two this time to make up for missing my self-appointed update date.

* * *

AC 192, July 7, 18:00  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania 

Lucrezia felt out of place in the ball gown, and even more out of place in the fur wrap that her brother had sent to accompany it. She walked carefully and quickly across the sidewalks, holding the skirts up to keep them from snagging on anything or getting dirty. Such lack of foresight would be unforgivable to Antoni.

She didn't even know where it was that she would be going. It was worse than a formal outing with father. As she neared the front gate, she was aware of two well-dressed, straight-backed figures approaching from the direction of the faculty barracks.

Her heart made a little twist. Antoni's note had mentioned there would be others traveling to the party. She had not thought of who would be joining her. She had some suspicions… Treize, certainly. Aside from him… there were two figures, who could the second be?

Her own posture righted itself, and she slowed. She lowered the thick skirts of her gown more decently, lifting one hand to hold the fur closed around her neck. It was warm, even in late fall, but she felt so bare in the gown that she kept the wrap on anyway.

Honestly, Savoy did not strike her as the type to be a member of Romefellor. He was too easy-going. There was ambition in him, but not the drive that she had noticed in her brother and in Treize. He lacked the fire to fuel him that they had. She had it too, but rather than playing the part of the aristocrat, she had chosen something that seemed so much more satisfying to her. The thought of meeting Savoy, dressed like this… she pressed her lips together and approached the gate with a clip in her step that sounded, even to her own ears, to be annoyed.

It wasn't until the three met up at the guard post that she forceded herself to relax. "Captain," she said, moving to salute Treize. He had recently been transferred from wherever he had been stationed, and appointed as an upper level instructor.

"This evening I am not to be addressed as such," Treize said. "For this evening, Miss Lucrezia Noin, I am simply Treize Kushrenada."

What he did then surprised her and forced her to let go of the annoyance she anticipated of an evening in which Savoy was to see her thus attired. A warm, gloved hand reached forward and took hers where it was raised, ready to salute, and he bowed at the waist, kissing the air over her hand. She was thankful that she could blame the blush of her cheeks on the temperature, and that her sore muscles were strong enough to keep her knees from banging together.

As Treize straightened, Lucrezia lowered herself in a curtsy, allowing the skirts of the ball gown to flutter around her on the cleanly swept concrete. She breathed an inward sigh of relief that her sore muscles could still accomplish such a feat of what she considered to be preposterous formality.

But when she rose, she saw the smile on Treize's lips and the glitter of amusement in his eye. The limousine approached, and the driver moved quickly to open the doors for them. It wasn't until Treize had climbed into the car that she took notice of the other stiffly dressed young man. She had to blink her eyes a moment as he stepped forward and extended a hand to assist her into the back of the car before she could be certain. "Full of assistance this week, I see, Zechs," she said as she ducked into the vehicle.

Quietly, she was grateful that it was Zechs and not Savoy, but she could not be entirely sure why that was.

"So it would seem," Zechs replied, following the two of them into the car.

The driver closed the door behind them and silence filled the rear cab as the car began to move away from the Lake Victoria Base and down towards the seaport of Kisumu. Lucrezia turned her head to look out the darkened windows and watched as the evening sunlight showed the open countryside around the main road that lead down to the city.

"You look lost in thought, Lucrezia," Treize said, adjusting his sword at his hip so that it was more comfortable to sit on the leather seats of the limousine with it still strapped to him.

Zechs had been thinking separate thoughts, and hadn't quite noticed. The helmet was slightly uncomfortable, sometimes, and it cut off his peripheral vision some. A little like tunnel vision, having this on his head. It annoyed him tonight, sitting across from people that knew him without it. Surely, in the limousine ride he could afford to take it off… No. Indulgence would only make being used to the headgear take longer.

He turned to look at Lucrezia, and was not entirely surprised to find she had turned to look out the windows. It would be awkward, for her, he surmised, to find casual conversation with a man like Treize. It was awkward for him, and he had spent years living with him and growing up in his household.

"I was… thinking," Lucrezia admitted, finding it hard to distance herself from the idea of Captain Kushrenada as a senior instructor, and the amount of respect that required of a soldier. "That before the city grew, and before the base was here, there must have been open space like this all around Lake Victoria."

"Not for almost two hundred years," Treize replied. "The freshwater of the lake makes this a good place to refine metal ore, and after the development of the colonies, with the addition of the space port on the island, Lake Victoria became an important strategic military position."

The road leveled out and they began to cross the bridge leading from the island where the Lake Victoria Base was to the mainland. Zechs felt compelled to ask a question of her, "What difference does it make?"

He was answered with a shrug of her shoulders under the fur, "It doesn't, I guess," she said. "But I think I would have preferred it then."


	9. 2:4

Bel Niente nella Guerra

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Happy early holidays to everyone. For those of you that celebrate some form of Turkey Day, or some other fall type harvest ceremony.

* * *

AC 192, July 7, 18:38  
Bukoba, Northwestern Tanzania 

When they reached the seaport, there was a motorboat waiting to take them out to the yacht. The Romefeller function was being hosted by the Tanzanian Ambassador himself. The man had no ties to the Romefeller Foundation, but was a political ally. And it was a traditional festival time for most of the peoples in the surrounding cities. Saba Saba, Seven-Seven, was a holiday that had extended to encompass more than just the day on which the historic events had occurred, but the entire week.

Climbing out of the car, the three of them were greeted with music and a throng of people that had nothing to do with their reasons for being present. Lucrezia's unease grew worse as Treize stepped through the crowd, breaking way for them, and Zechs started after him. Neither of them seemed to recall, in that moment, that she was to accompany them, but just as the crowd started to close up behind Treize, Zechs stopped and reached back, holding out a hand.

Forcing her pulse into submission, as she did every day in the press of the other cadets, Lucrezia straightened her back, glad for once of the stiff bodice of the gown, and stepped forward, putting her fingertips on Zechs's forearm.

"Are the two of you coming?" Treize asked, paused but not glancing back at them.

"Of course," Zechs replied, breaking way through the crowd as Treize had done.

What was with the helmet? Lucrezia wondered to herself. And the change in demeanor… her prior encounters with Zechs had suggested that he was a kind, withdrawn person. Perhaps it was his uniform this evening, much as her own attire seemed to be sucking the normal strength from her actions. But no, it was not just that. He had even seemed polite and formal at the academy, when there was little, if any, reason for it.

They reached the speedboat and stepped into it. Again, she was glad for the fur that covered her shoulders as they sped towards the yacht. The air itself was nowhere near as cold as it would be back home during this season, but the wind rushing by would have caused goosebumps if she did not have the overpriced wrap on. She thought of the palazzio of her father… she was rarely required to dress like this at home. She watched the lights of the city pass away from them as the boat headed out onto the lake, and saw that the tourists were watching them. Seeing that, she tilted her chin higher and turned to look towards where they were headed.

The yacht was large, and it sparkled against the darkening sky. She could imagine the well dressed men and women, and then she could see them on the various decks, through the glass windows and out on the rear of the boat. The smaller speedboat slowed as it neared the yacht, and she felt small as the massive sea craft towered over them.

Treize stepped onto the stairs leading up onto the main deck first, and then Zechs stepped from the boat, again assisting her. "You're being helpful," Lucrezia said.

"Probably because you look like you feel as out of place as I do," he replied, catching her elbow in a firm hand as she stepped awkwardly onto the stairs. "Perhaps you should take my arm," he offered.

"Probably," she replied, lifting the skirts of the horrid gown in one hand as she threaded her other through his arm, gripping at the fur to keep it closed.

"Try to keep up," Treize said over his shoulder. "Antonino would like a word with his sister before the festivities commence." He was not sure if anything had transpired between the two of them, either at his estate in the woods before he and Antonino arrived, or during their time at Lake Victoria Base.

"I'm sure he does," Lucrezia replied. The two of them headed up the steps more quickly, catching up with Treize as he ascended from the string of lights that illuminated the damp stairs up into the warm glow of the lighting on the deck. "He always does," she said softly as the two of them stepped onto the deck. She politely took her arm back from Zechs and dipped him a shallow curtsy. "Tell me where to find him and I'll be out of your hair, Treize."

The look that she was favored with was unreadable, and then it was replaced with a smooth smile. A tuxedoed servant approached them, and Treize discarded his cape with the man, taking the fur wrap from Lucrezia's shoulders as well. "Could you direct the lady to Barone Noin please?"

The servant nodded and took a step back, pausing to wait for her. Lucrezia dipped another curtsy to Treize and Zechs before she turned and headed off with him.

"An interesting young lady indeed," Treize commented absently to Zechs.

The helmeted young man said nothing in reply.

"In reading over the cadets' files, it became apparent that the two of you are in a class by yourselves when it comes to marks," Treize continued, stepping into the people on the deck.

"Perhaps we simply have more reason to achieve greater," Zechs replied, bored.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Treize spotted several people and smiled. "At least try to enjoy yourself for once, Zechs. I'll find you before it's time to depart."

The helmeted head nodded and as Treize headed in one direction, Zechs turned and went in the other. He threaded through the dance floor and over to the tables where food was being served. It would be good to have the dinner he had missed, and then if he could manage it, he would slip away and find somewhere to watch the crowd from.

These people meant nothing to him.

Across the crowd, he was surprised to see one of the other students at the base. What was his name… Savy? Savoy. The name came back to him from a conversation he had with one of his own unit mates when he asked about the three young men that seemed to have been assigned to be the baronessa's friends.

What he found out did not make him at all comfortable. The duca, if Zechs were to allow the title in the man's own language, or the duke if he rather preferred to think of the man in something more sane, was apparently well liked within Romefellor.

The organization was something that Zechs found could calm his sometimes turbulent thoughts. It deadened him to think of the purpose the organization had in mind… or rather, the purpose that Treize was maneuvering for through the organization. His affectionate foster brother could be quite a mystery.

Again he wondered what had happened four years ago to make him change… And again his mind could come up with nothing. There had been very little _to_ comment on in that regard. His twelfth year of life held nothing extraordinary to make it stand out. His foster brother had been just finishing with his own preparatory education, and spent time relaxing with his peers and enjoying the perks that came with the privilege of his family.

* * *

AC 192, July 7, 19:15  
Private Yacht of the Tanzanian Ambassador  
International Waters, Lake Victoria 

Lucrezia stood with her back straight in the cabin where Antoni was walking in circles around her, appraising the fit of the attire he had sent to her. The family coronet was seated on top of his dark hair. "It's too big on you," he said with a frown. "Do they not feed you on this military base you are attending?"

"We just finished ten weeks of Physical Training, Antoni," Lucrezia replied, "I've toned my weight into muscle. Why do I have to be here?"

"Because you and I are the last of our father's children, and they need to be reminded that they could not kill our father's bloodline so easily."

"I feel like a doll, dressed like this," Lucrezia replied. "And without that fur I feel half naked!"

"Of course you do," Antonino replied stiffly, "you are dressed but not adorned properly."

She stared at him, blankly, and he crossed the small room to the well carved desk, opening the top drawer with a small key. He removed a polished wooden box and beckoned his sister over to where he stood as he opened it. Lucrezia's eyes widened. "Those were… mother's…"

"An accurate statement," Antonino said, lifting the glittering diamond necklace from the box and stepping behind his shorter sister to place it around her neck, fastening it with a deft motion of his fingers. "You may not want to admit, but you are of noble blood, Lucrezia Catarina. You are my sister, whether you are a soldier or not, and I will require your presence as you are the last of my family."

"Antoni," Lucrezia said with a sigh, "_Magari_[3… I wish it had been one of the others to survive. Erme or Ine," she said, "they would not disobey you so, they would not disappoint you-"

The quiet of her words was interrupted by a sharp slap. Antonino's bare hand stung from the force of it, and Lucrezia's chin jerked to the side. She slowly turned her face back towards her brother, and her violet eyes burned as she glared at him. After weeks of physical training, she was unaffected by the force of the blow, but outraged that he had dared to strike her.

"Never wish for what cannot be," Antonino said in a cold, angry voice. "You are who you are, you are alive. You are doing what you feel you must now that we are here, and they are not."

He turned again to the box and lifted a bracelet, taking her wrist and fastening it over the glove she wore. She jerked her hand back, balling it into a fist. "How dare you," Lucrezia replied. "No one strikes me. Father did not strike me."

"I am not father," Antonino replied, closing the box and replacing it in the drawer. "And you will not treat me as you did him. We are both too old for these games, Lucrezia."

"You were too old by the time I was born," she said, forcing her hand down to her side. Perhaps he was right. And the look in his eyes when he had reprimanded her… "If you are also angry about what happened… why do you not enlist?"

"Believe it or not," Antonino said stiffly as he stepped over and took her hand to place it on his arm, "the army has an age limit for enlisting. And while I thirst as you do for vengeance, I believe there is another way to acquire it."

Lucrezia gazed up at her tall, handsome older brother. Her only brother. The only son of her father. She did not understand what Antoni meant… she could not. Perhaps it was the age difference between them, but she thought it was more likely something else. Antoni saw things differently… he must see something that she could not.

"I don't like this," she said in a sullen voice as he lead her towards the doors. Whatever else, she was speaking truthfully. But, she had to admit, he had as well. With the jewels sparkling at her neck and on her wrist, she did not feel nearly as naked as she had when she had relinquished the fur.

"You do not have to like this," Antonino said, reaching over to set her shoulders properly. "You have to do it. Lift your chin, smile."

* * *

[3 Magari – Italian expression for "If only." It expresses a great wish or hope. 


	10. 2:5

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: The schedule continues, sort of. So this is the end of chapter two. I'm hoping everyone is enjoying reading the chapters as much as I'm enjoying writing them. This chapter's a rather long chapter, but I think it's worth it. I think it's worth mentioning, after having done a little _more_ research on the story (it never ends, I think), that we are diverging from the Episode Zero appearance of Noin. That said, enjoy the end of Chapter Two. The Italian phrases are defined at the end of the chapter, and I've been numbering them in the master document, so that's where the numbers came from.

Happy Holidays to everyone, yet again.

* * *

**AC 192, July 7, 20:00**  
Private Yacht of the Tanzanian Ambassador  
International Waters, Lake Victoria 

Standing with his back against the wall, Zechs watched the well-dressed ladies dancing with the well-dressed gentlemen. He felt out of place, but protected, somehow, by the helmet that he wore, and the military uniform that was just dressy enough so that he could pass for one of these people. It was no different than any of his father's functions when he was younger, he reasoned.

He did not need to pass for one of these people. Romefellor was made up of nobility from across the globe, and he was nobility. Or, rather, Milliardo was nobility. He was good enough, for the evening. Zechs Marquise was noted as a ward of the Kushrenada family. And no one gainsaid Adalwulf Kushrenada's right to foster who he chose.

Zechs watched Treize as he charmed his supporters and wooed the people who were against him. Silently, Zechs wished he had been allowed to remain on the base, in his barracks. Mentally, he went over the assignments for the rest of the week, but his thoughts were interrupted by a musical cue from the band. Someone was entering the dance floor. Someone important enough to be given the eyes of the crowd of important people who were gathered.

"The right honoroable, the lord Noin of Bormio. And the-"

The dancing ladies and their gentlemen pressed in, forming a crowd between Zech and the announcer, who was not quite loud enough for his voice to filter through the bodies and the talking. Zechs' helmeted ears could not make out what was being said. Because of this, perhaps, or perhaps simply to pass the time of the evening more quickly, Zechs was curious about who was entering with the Barone, and what was being said. He wanted to take the mask off, but knew that would give him away, now… and he knew that would be too dangerous. He would have to get used to it. He moved through the crowd as the applause began, and music was struck up for a waltz. The crowd thinned a little as the dancing couples moved to join in the waltz, and he caught the glittering couple at the center of the dance floor.

He had to blink, and shift his position amidst the crowd to follow the graceful movements, to be sure that it was who he thought it was… the two Noin children.

Lucrezia… and Barone Antonino.

A frown tilted on his lips, made harsher to view by the mask. On one hand, he had never seen her look so exquisite. The gown seemed to fit, once the jewels that sparkled in the dim lamp light were added to it. Even the looseness of the bodice was excusable…

But on the other hand, she seemed a different person in it. Distant, where he had known her to feel much nearer to him than this, even on the far side of a crowd. In class she did not feel so remote to him. Even in Physical Training, in a different unit that his own was competing against, she was not so cut off as she appeared in that moment, moving gracefully with her older brother.

He moved to back out of the crowd, but Treize's voice stopped him. "There they are," the tall man said. "Barone."

Zechs turned his head to regard Treize, but the tall man did not seem to be paying too much attention to him. The captain caught the Barone's eye, and Antonino swirled his sister over to where Treize was standing. The crowd parted, and Zechs hesitated a moment too long to join them before the Barone was speaking.

"Yes, Treize?"

"I was wondering if I could borrow you. There are a few people that I've been speaking to that have things for your ears."

Antonino hesitated, glancing at his sister, who was smiling impassively at him. From such a short distance, Zechs could see the angry glint to her eyes, and the spark of fire that was hidden in the depths of the violet. It was somehow reassuring to see that something of the person he knew her to be was still present in the beautiful dancer that was displayed before him, but it nonetheless unsettled Zechs what Treize did in response to Antonino's hesitation.

"I'm sure your sister will be most safe dancing with Zechs," Treize said.

Both of them started to protest, but received a stern glance from Treize. "Neither of you are cadets for the evening," he said in a quiet voice.

Zechs would not have objected, had he not seen the look on the barone's face at Treize's side. The tall, dark haired man did not regard Treize, Zechs, or even his younger sister. Once Zechs saw his face, he turned his eyes to the crowd, and lifted a hand to someone.

"That will not be necessary, Treize," Antonino said.

* * *

Lucrezia did not like any of what was going on. She felt like a ball being passed around, and she hated that feeling almost as much as she hated being underestimated by her classmates. She turned to voice her protest when the person her brother had signaled came closer. 

She did not expect to see Duca Savoy approaching across the smoothly tiled dance floor. He walked over with his usual relaxed smile firmly in place, and extended a gloved hand in her direction.

"Anto-" Lucrezia tried to speak, but Antonino's terse retort was less polite and suggestive, as he drew Lucrezia before the duca with a graceful movement of his leading hand.

His tone was succinct as he bowed to Giustino, placing Lucrezia's hand in the duca's, "Do try to keep up the proper appearances," he said to his sister before he straightened and followed Treize towards whatever group of supporters were in need of his attention.

Zechs was left to stand watching as Savoy performed a smooth, graceful bow to his partner.

In a little shock, she performed a fairly accurate curtsy, and they both straightened. Giustino placed his hand on her waist, and she put her hand on his shoulder, and after taking a moment to find the proper beat of the music, the two of them began waltzing.

Hesitating a moment, aware of the stares of the well dressed women and their dance partners, Zechs retreated to the his former position holding up the wall of the interior cabins of the yacht. Unlike before, however, his detached regard of his surroundings was now fixed on the youngest couple on the dance floor.

"You don't have to do this," Lucrezia said quietly, looking over Giustino's shoulder and watching the more adult dancers as they smiled and chatted with their partners. She felt sick to her stomach at the sight of such opulence as what she was seeing there. None of these people cared about what was going on… none of these people seemed to know that they were dancing and making merry on a borrowed yacht that was lent by a country trying to look good to them.

The even more revolting thought was that all these people could know that, and be enjoying the sensation of power. For a moment she caught the glitter of a sparkling helmet, and Zechs flickered in her vision. She tightened her grip on Giustino's arm, and the dark haired duca left her alone to her thoughts for a moment before offering his answer.

"Perhaps I don't," Giustino said in a smooth voice, "but neither do you."

"What I have to do seems quite different than what you have to do," Lucrezia said. "You have a choice to be here. You are dressed modestly, and _I_ am being paraded and swirled around in front of them half-naked."

"I wouldn't really call that particular ball gown half-naked," Giustino replied with a soft chuckle.

Lucrezia didn't respond to that. The two danced in relative silence until the end of the song, and then they both released each other and clapped their gloved hands politely.

Taking a step back from Giustino, annoyed at his smooth tongue and diplomatic manner, but unwilling to cause a scene for fear of what it would bring down as punishment through her brother, Lucrezia dipped a curtsy to him. As she straightened, she saw a confused look on the duca's face. Turning, she found her brother's gaze was on her. He shook his head in a firm, decided manner.

"Giovane donna,** -4-**" Giustino said to call her to a stop, stepping up behind her. One of his hands took hers, and the other moved for her waist.

"Come ha detto,** -5-**" a deep voice said.

Both Lucrezia and Giustino turned, and Lucrezia was surprised to find that Zechs stood before the two of them. The look on his face was somewhat unreadable, but she thought she could detect a bit of a faint smile in the tilt of his lips. She found herself smiling in return.

She had not known Zechs to speak Italian.

"Scusi** -6-**?" Giustino quipped back.

"I'm going to steal your partner," Zechs said, with a bow at the waist that was formal enough to make the duca's eyebrows raise high on his forehead. Zechs extended a white gloved hand to Lucrezia. "Signorina **-7-**?"

For whatever reason, hearing Zechs say those words made Lucrezia feel much less like a baseball being tossed between the members of Romefellor. And Zechs was Treize's foster brother, of course he would be entitled to an invitation, even if he had nothing to do with it himself… She curtsied to Savoy and put her own gloved hand in Zechs's.

"Che _palle _**-8-**," Giustino drawled, bending at the waist to them both.

Lucrezia could almost _feel_ Antonino's scathing glance at her back. It made the gown feel that much more like wearing her underwear in a crowded auditorium. Zechs did not seem to notice, however, and he drew her into a dance position.

"Lucrezia," Zechs said as the band began to play again and he put pressure on her back to lead her in the steps of the dance that was being played, "this is awkward… isn't it?"

Indigo eyes regarded Zechs's pale blue eyes distrustfully through the glass of the mask. "Of course it is, Zechs," she said in a low voice. "In the morning we go back to being competing classmates at a military facility. The captain, no matter his good intentions, is still our superior… you and I, and _the duca_," she said the word even more distrustfully than she had spoken to him a moment prior, "despite our finery, are still cadets."

"It wasn't that way when you and I met."

"When we met," Lucrezia replied, forgetting to think about the dancing they were doing and allowing herself to follow his lead, "I was concussed, still recovering from shell shock, and I pulled a knife on you… with every intent to kill you."

"It takes more than just intent to kill," Zechs replied, looking slightly over her head at the crowd that they moved through. He was aware of the spectacle the two of them presented, even if she was not.

He had just upstaged a duke. A duke that was chatting and flirting with some very well dressed young women at present. An unknown had just unseated a duke…

And the only daughter of the dead Barone Ottaviano and the mysterious masked foster son of His Excellency Adalwulf Kushrenada were swirling across the dance floor. The sparkling jewels around Lucrezia's neck were as much a mark of note as the shining helmet that he himself wore. As much a reminder to all those present just whom they were amongst.

Not everyone in Romefeller was royalty. There were certain elite members of civilian society that had elevated themselves to the proper amount of influence required, usually by amassing a certain amount of wealth or political power. The nouveau royalty had to be reminded that there were better bloodlines than what money could buy.

"You were frightened, and you were angry," Zechs said in a low voice, "but you had no intent of really killing me, or I wouldn't be here dancing with you tonight, Lucrezia," he said. "I have no doubt of that."

She glanced up at him, the distrust in her eyes fading into nothing more than a careful reserve. Her guard lowered, just a little. Somewhere on the rear deck, a clock chimed the hour, and the noise of an explosion was heard off the starboard side of the ship. Lucrezia's hands tightened on Zechs, and he glanced at her in confusion.

A moment later the colored lights of fireworks illuminated the night sky, and the crowd of dancing gentility crossed to the railing to enjoy the view. Seeing that the majority of the crowd was distracted, Zechs took her gloved hand and guided Lucrezia from the dance floor and to the port railing, away from most of the noise.

She turned away from him once they reached the railing, wrapping her hands around the wooden banister. "Stupid, stupid," she muttered to herself. "No one would dare attack a gathering Romefeller threw."

"You were shell shocked when we met," Zechs said softly, folding his hands behind his back and looking up at the sky. The blanket of stars seemed to glow with the light of the fireworks display as it continued on the other side of the ship. And then, as though one side of the surrounding city refused to be outdone by the other, more fireworks were launched from the other shore. Lucrezia jumped slightly, her hands tensing defensively at her sides, and Zechs' blue eyes turned to regard her.

The night was almost black overhead, and the bursts of colors glittered more brightly than the stars, and reflected in the inky dark water that the large yacht floated on. The whole evening seemed aglow with lights, even out near the center of the lake as they were.

It would be a beautiful picture, if either of them were looking up at the evening sky. Lucrezia stared down at her gloved hands, felt the stiffness in her bruised and cut fingers from her training, and knew she was trembling at the sound of the distant explosions that propelled the fireworks into the air. All she saw of the fireworks was what colors reflected in her mother's jewels.

Zechs watched her, stepping slightly closer and putting a hand on her back as the crowd moved over to that railing as well, pressing around them to watch the fireworks.

This is silly, Lucrezia thought to herself, this weakness is silly. They are just fireworks, it's not the roaring sound of a rocket… it's completely different.

But she knew that it did sound like thunder, and that was what made her tremble so. She could feel Zechs's hand on her back, and though she did not understand his concern, it was a comfort to know she was at least human enough to have someone care about her distress. She found it easy to forget things like that, when she was dressed in her fatigues and crawling through the muddy PT grounds… or dressed in her duty uniform walking amidst the other cadets.

Treize had said that for the evening, the three of them were not a part of the military. An excited, inebriated guest pressed in on her left side, a glass of something teetering in her lose grip. Lucrezia turned, putting her hands on Zechs' arms. She could see under his mask, she was so close to him. His eyebrows rose, and his eyes registered surprise even through the small panes of glass that covered them.

Was it wrong, to be leaning against him like this? Lucrezia turned her eyes for a moment to the crowd, but the tall, disapproving figure of her brother was nowhere. She could afford to be human for the moment. She could allow herself human contact… if he would.

"For the evening," Lucrezia said, loud enough for his ears only. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat. "Here, away from the base, I am Lucrezia," she said.

Her voice sounded loathing, and he didn't like that. Her hands gripped his arms, and so his hands found her waist. It felt a little awkward, but then she leaned her head forward, lips close to his.

"I am Lucrezia," she repeated, and her voice sounded much more confident as she peered up under his mask at the contours of his face. He did not tense, it was not as though _she_ had not seen his face before, unmasked and revealed. "But who are you?"

For half a moment, Zechs could say nothing. She was closer to him than he had let anyone since… he could not remember. It was awkward, it was strange, and yet familiar all at once. His lips moved without his conscious thought and he began to speak his name to her. "Mil-"

A throat cleared nearby, and their attention was called, again, to their surroundings. Whatever spell had opened him up was broken, shattered by the noise in an instant. He tensed. She straightened, moving back from where she had been so close to brushing her lips to his, and both of them turned to regard the owner of the noise. Her brother gazed at them.

"In the future," Antoni said, taking her by the elbow and guiding her firmly away from Zechs, "_drink_ if you are going to make such a spectacle of yourself."

Lucrezia blinked her eyes repeatedly. She started to speak, but bit back her response and dipped her head to her brother respectfully.

Standing still, Zechs was grateful for the mask that obscured his expression from the Barone, and from her. One unusual thing after another.

"Thankfully no one is paying attention at the moment. If you will forgive the intrusion,_ Master_ Marquise, I will retake possession of my sister."

Zechs bowed sharply, one hand folding at his mid-section, and watched as the Barone guided Lucrezia away. He watched as the two of them threaded a path through the inebriated, enthralled crowd of fireworks watchers, and was rewarded with a backward glance from the dark haired Baronessa.

* * *

Italian phrases:  
4 - Giovanne donna signorina miss  
5 - Come ha detto pardon me (formal)  
6 - scusi pardon? (inf)  
7 - signorina miss  
8 - che palle what a downer / drag (inf, slang) 


	11. 3:1

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: The schedule resumes. I've got internet back, and if is willing, we'll get right back into the swing of things with these updates. Happy belated New Year to everyone.

* * *

**AC 192, July 26**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Weekend mornings, or really any morning not involving PT, gentle music haunted Zechs's ears all throughout the CQ that he usually spent studying the manuals for the mobile suits that they would be learning to pilot. He lay on the bunk in the barracks with his helmet perched atop his head and did his best to keep from humming. Either fortunately or unfortunately, in the weeks that passed since the ball, he had seen little of the baronessa. They had drills, they glanced one another in the mess hall, but there was little personal about the manner in which they glimpsed one another. Nothing inviting intimacy… or confidence.

He told himself it was fortunate.

For two months, the other cadets around him had remarked to one another quietly about the helmet. Most of the members of Zechs's unit were aloof or detached. When they had shared duties, little was said between them. Zechs was good at their lessons. He excelled in PT and MS training. It annoyed the other members of his unit. The rest of his unit was far less dedicated to the future that awaited them as members of Oz, Zechs thought. It angered him.

Not only that they were doing something they did not have to. There was a choice, to join the military or not. He had seen it made for years, heard his father speak out against it. To some, there were only two occupations in a time of war – civilian cannon fodder or combatant. Milliardo's family had seen differently and been proven cannon fodder for their views. The spilled blood had wounded Milliardo in a way that was hard to recover from.

It was his third foster position, when Pagan contacted Élodie Kushrenada. She met with young Milliardo to appraise him. She walked in a circle around him, wearing a riding habit and with a helmet under one arm. Her red hair was pulled tightly into a low bun on her head, and she wore makeup that made her look older than she had any real right to be. There were jewels around her neck, under the frilled riding collar she wore. She smelled of an expensive perfume when she leaned down to inspect the line of his face.

It was like she was inspecting a horse… He never knew what had induced the proper looking French woman to accept him. Milliardo's father and her husband were on opposite sides of the battlefield. His family stood against war as a matter of honor…

Perhaps it was because his family was dead.

Milliardo tried not to think about that when he thought about Élodie. He preferred to consider the Peacecrafts dead as a whole. After the interview he had with her before she accepted him into the household, he took pains to avoid her company whenever possible. Like Treize, he had been sent away to be schooled. Like Treize, his marks were outstanding. She required no more than that. He was a clean, good-looking boy. It did not make him feel any better that he could see in her eyes that she considered him to be a poor waif.

At Lake Victoria, he was not a waif, but he was still pitiable. Pitiable in his dedication, in his fire for his cause. What angered him most about his unit was that they did not do what they were set to with all their might. It was something he admired about the baronessa. Lucrezia…

Noin.

He reminded himself that he must refer to her as Noin. There was no other name to address her with in their lives, now. Noin was unlike the other cadets. She was at a disadvantage, but she fought and worked more fervently than they did. Noin's mettle was not forged of dreams and aspirations, he thought he could see in her the same loss of lightness that he perceived in his own eyes in the mirror in the morning.

And for that he valued her, and was close to despising his unit. The thinly veiled venom of the rapport that Zechs had with his unit sometimes came to blows. He was trained in hand to hand combat, as were the other cadets, but there was little to be done, sometimes, but take the blows of his classmates. There were more of them.

It tempered the dislike into a hatred. It made his blue eyes keen. These cadets would never be members of Oz. They proved their lack of ambition and preference for needless violence often. One of the less congenial of his unit members strolled across to where he was seated at his desk.

"What's with the headgear, Marquise? Worried you'll scar your pretty face?" The helmet that he wore had become an easy target for his foes.

Zechs turned a page in the manual.

"Can't say I envy you going into MS training without your peripheral vision. You're going to have one hell of a blind spot." Morris, the cadet's name was, Zechs recalled finally. The young man leaned against his bunk and his shadow fell across the manual pages Zechs was reading. "See to it that you don't become an easy target."

"You are in my light," Zechs said in a soft voice.

"And you are in my way," Morris replied. "Don't think that Captain Kushrenada will be much help when you flunk your simulator runs."

It was more than what Morris was saying aloud. Looking up at Morris for a moment, Zechs narrowed his eyes in annoyance. It was this sort of person, this sort of cadet, whose lust for approval and advancement was making the whole _world_ a battleground. This sort of a person was the hand that had dealt the blow of the revolutionaries to his father's kingdom…

The idea of it made Zechs' blood boil. The idea of it drowned out the peaceful ideals of Milliardo. Zechs' hand tightened on his pencil. This sort of person was propagating war and death and loss…

But this sort of a person was not the cause of it. The voice in his head sounded distinctly like that of his foster brother Treize.

Noting his page number, Zechs closed the manual and folded his notebooks shut. His movements were fluid, despite the stiffness in his muscles from training runs and after-hours sparring matches with Morris and his compatriots. Zechs sat up from where he was reclining and rose from his bunk. "I will do my best to keep such things in mind," he said, lips even. "Do your best to remember that assigned units change according to ranking and performance." Zechs tucked the books and notebooks under his arm and headed for the door of the barracks.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Morris called after him.

Without replying, Zechs headed out of the barracks and towards the library. It was a Saturday. There would be less talking there and he would be able to study in private.

The quiet dignity of his withdrawl, as it could not be termed a retreat… This was the legacy that Milliardo had left to him. This was the last vestige of his former life. Not even the pacifist blood in his veins could cool his temper. While he could turn his back on pacifism as an answer to the blatant destructiveness in man's _very nature_… no. He couldn't accept that, not all of him, even now, even after so long of living and working and learning about it. Man couldn't be like this always… There was the capacity for learning, the capacity for change.

It was just as he and Treize discussed.

Thoughts distracted, he crossed the compact Victoria base without a thought, passing other enlisted students and saluting his superiors on auto-pilot. He had learned it when he first attended his first campus. That was the military preparatory academy just outside of Prague. He had some fond memories from there, but most were just as what he had come to recognize about the life he was living… it was bland. And with the helmet as an addition to everything else, he more often than not felt the things he was seeing were cast in monotone grays. Occasionally there would be a hint of color, a flash somewhere… but not often.

There was too much uncertain, too much confusing for it to be otherwise. Detachment, he found, was safer than connection. He had tried such tactics only after being wounded, knew that he had learned from his past experiences. Treize seemed close, but then something had changed him.

That was one thing the two young men did _not_ talk about. But what they did, when they did, was always heated discussion. A very young Milliardo had listened and learned, and tried to fit what Treize was instructing into the ideals he had already been brought up with, but that soon failed and only served to make him confused. It became apparent, the older he got, that he would have to decide for himself what it was that he truly believed, and in so doing, he began to counter Treize's arguments, to discuss things with his foster-father… But in some things, they already agreed, and it seemed that neither time nor maturity would change what they could agree on.

It was not impossible for mankind to have a different destiny than the one that lay at the end of the path they traveled on. There was more to the human race than the empty slaughter of itself… he believed that. He had to believe that.

His footsteps had blindly brought him to the library, which was exactly where he knew he needed to be. The afternoon sunshine fell through the high windows that were above the bookshelves. Zechs found his way through the doors with his studying materials and headed into the deserted library. The librarian worked at a computer terminal behind the circulation desk. The woman didn't lift her head as he entered and walked by.

Setting his books onto a table, Zechs found a seat and began to spread out across the table. He set to working. Time fell off the clock, the sun slipped across the table and up the stacks of books. He moved, shifted, and realized that the afternoon had become evening. He got up to get a drink of water, and stopped to find that he was not alone in the empty library.

Seated at a table near the back, wearing a pair of glasses and with her hair clipped back out of the way, Lucrezia was pouring over books and making notes in spiral bound notebooks. He stopped walking and took a moment to look at her. The fall of her hair, the curve of her cheek. The scar that adorned her forehead where her hair usually fell to cover it.

He could recall, for the moment, the feeling of her warmth when she leaned against his jacket the night on the yacht. Even amidst the bodies of the crowd, she had been warm to him, warmer than them. The graze of her breath on his face.

As though she somehow sensed his presence, Lucrezia turned her eyes to look up at him. Their eyes met, ice blue and indigo. There was a sharpness to her eyes that made him feel awkward.In an instant his feeling turned to shame, and he shifted his head. The light reflected off the glass through the eyeholes of his mask.

"Noin," he said, nodding to her.

"Zechs," she replied, brows moving closer together as though she were somehow disturbed by the light coming from his mask.

* * *

Seeing him there in the library made her heart stop. Despite what she'd said that night… despite the quiet ride back in the limousine…

Treize had been taking a phone call throughout most of it, and the three other passengers sat in silence. Lucrezia had her wrap around her shoulders, hiding her bare neck from view, and Zechs sat with his hands folded in his lap. Savoy was in the limousine with them. They spoke little, but her words from the dance floor of the yacht hung in the air between. His almost finished phrase.

As though once spoken, those words were unable to be repeated, or taken back. And now…

And now, to see him like this… alone… Nearly a month had passed. Things seemed to be so very different now. "You're studying alone," he said to her. Distracted by her thoughts, she had not seen him rise and cross to stand near her table. "You normally study with your friends."

Different between them, but still so much the same.

"The library has always been a quiet place to collect your thoughts. And I didn't want to study with them today." She looked around and for the first time she noticed where his things were. The pile of books, the notebooks, his chewed up pen. "You were studying?"

"The manuals for the mobile suits are written in techno-jargon that escapes me," he admitted. "I read through it once, but now I am going back over it for what I did not comprehend on the first reading. I have two different dictionaries and a physics textbook to understand the fourth chapter."

"Two weeks of specials training at the school and already you're working through the mobile suit manuals?" Lucrezia offered him a smile. "I'm working on chapter seven. Again."

He smiled at her, and she smiled back. This was wrong, wasn't it? Slipping into such an ease with him. Getting used to companionship…

"I'll leave you to chapter seven then," Zechs said. He dipped his head slightly in a respectful manner and then headed over to the water fountain as he'd intended.

She looked down at her books as he headed past, ignoring the sway of his hair against the back of his uniform shirt as he moved past, the glint of the metal of his helmet in the dimming light of the library. It was longer than the other cadets' hair, nearly to his shoulder blades. Her brother's reprimands about appearance and decorum were fresh in her mind, even after weeks having passed since the private meeting.

It was as he passed back in the direction of his books that Lucrezia felt the urge to speak again. "Zechs," she said.

He stopped, turning his head halfway over his shoulder towards her. The blasted helmet masked his facial expression, kept his eyes from her at the distance, but she could see the quirk of his lips. What was it the stable hand had called that sort of thing…? A tell.

His very expression was a tell. He _wanted_ her to stop him. This was ridiculous.

"Let me know when_you_ get to seven. I have a few questions."

* * *

Leaning back from the table, Zechs was surprised to find that his mind wandered from the task at hand. Something about the mobile suit manuals did not catch in his brain. Perhaps it was the stiffness in his muscles, perhaps it was the company…

Across the table, as he had moved to sit with her, Lucrezia sat with her nose still in the manual she was reading. Her eyes were on the pages, and her pen was moving fluidly on a notepad. He glanced at her notes, and sighed. Pages and pages of them. She had been writing down things for two hours. Her pen stopped. He noticed that before he realized she was looking at him.

"What time is it?"

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Zechs blinked. Maybe he was not catching the subject because he had been reading over it for six hours. Lucrezia snapped her book shut across the table from him, making the papers on her legal pad flutter slightly. She leaned back in a stretch, neck pressing into the back of the chair while her head curled over the back of it.

Zechs watched. He had no reason not to.

"About dinnertime," he said back.

She looked up at him. "Not sabotage?"

"Sabotage?" Zechs lifted a brow.

She stared at him for a minute.

The minute stretched into two as neither of them spoke. It took a moment for him to realize that she could not see his lifted eyebrow, and could not immediately discern his facial expressions. A smile played at the corner of his lips when he realized this.

"Reminding you to eat isn't really sabotage," he said.

She reached up and unclipped her hair, letting the thick dark mass fall over her face. It was as it covered her eye that he realized he did not often see all of her face. "Why do you cover your face?" The words were out of his mouth before he knew what he was thinking.

"Why do you?" she replied.

Meeting her eyes, Zechs felt he could almost hear the strings of the orchestra tuning on the far side of the room behind the stacks of books. Obviously Noin did not expect an answer. She was packing her books into a pile, and piling the stack into her bag. He mechanically did the same.

"We should be able to make dinner still," she said as the two of them headed out of the library.

The librarian's eyes followed them as long as she could, but the two cadets headed out the doors and quickly out of sight.

Silence settled between the two of them as they headed down the path towards the mess hall. Noin was not thinking about conversation, she was puzzling over the mobile suit manuals she had been reviewing. Zechs could not think of anything to begin the conversation with. So he, and thus both of them, stayed silent.

The mess hall was generally empty. Sunday nights kept most of the cadets in their barracks, studying for general education. Homework was due Monday mornings. It was one way of having soldiers that were not stupid… or at least so the theory went. Saturdays, like the one they were entering on, saw most of the cadets off base in the city, if they could swing the trip with finances and with the commanding officers. It being a leave weekend in general, the base was spare when it came to cadets. Lucrezia took the lead, dropping her bag on a table before she headed up to the chow line. Zechs followed behind her, picking up a tray mechanically.

He stared down at it through the glass of the eyeholes on his mask, and ran his fingers on the condensation left over from the steam cleaning that was used to sanitize them. Silverware dropped onto the side of his tray, and he looked up to see Noin watching him. "Don't fall in," she said, turning back towards the cadet-attendants at the mess hall.

The line passed in a blur of oblivion, and they returned to the table with their bags. Zechs was aware, as he sat, that they were not the only mixed-gender pair seated at tables. There were, of course, other female cadets. Few though their number was… with Treize in attendance at Lake Victoria, any cadet wishing to impress the Captain and future commander had transferred in. It was somewhat surprising to Zechs that there was not more competition.

The silence was finally broken as Lucrezia tapped him on the helmet with a spoon. He blinked and shifted back in his seat, a frown forming on his lips. "Eat," she said.

What he wouldn't give to have something impressive to say to her. Something funny, or something that would make her smile. He glanced up at her, and was surprised to see that she was offering him a smile.

"What?"

"It's not sabotage unless I dent the helmet, right?"


	12. 3:2

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: The schedule continues. As does Thesis for me.

* * *

**AC192, July 27 (Sunday)**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Of all the duties of an instructor, staff meetings were what Treize hated the most about it. The other instructors were all members of the Alliance, some of Oz, but none high enough to warrant his attention, normally. Instead of being allowed to supervise the training of his Specials soldiers, he was caught in the tedium of regiment. Meetings (like the dreaded one he was having at that moment), schedules, routines, grading.

"These marks are utterly unacceptable," the sergeant in charge of the mobile suit training continued barking about. Lieutenant Commander William Chapdelaine was of Anglican descent, but he bore the weight of a Prussian about his growling tone.

He should speak German, Treize thought to himself.

Chapdelaine was very straight forward, and as thick as his voice required him to be. His mass was organized muscle, and his thoughts reflected the idea that perhaps too much of his mass was _just_ muscle, rather than matter. He was talking. Treize tried to pay attention. A lot of that was happening, and it was doing little to help the situation at hand.

"There seems to be some sort of a missing link between the cadets' skills as soldiers and their ability to pilot a mobile suit."

"Well have you tried upping the required hours in the simulator?" another of the teachers asked.

"The simulator doesn't seem to be doing much good. No matter how much time the cadets log into it, the groups don't seem to be catching on. Something's missing."

"Perhaps these cadets just aren't cut out for the sort of mobile suit operation you're expecting out of them."

"No, that is unlikely," Treize said, speaking up for the first time since the meeting began. "The potential for top level performance exists within these cadets. The fault is not in their learning ability, but rather in the method being used to train them."

Chapdelaine narrowed his dark eyes at Treize once he'd said that. "What do you mean, Captain?"

"You are approaching the training of these cadets as you would the training of Alliance soldiers for Leo-class suits. The Taurus mobile suit, and so its simulators, are much more advanced than the Leo, and so the training program for the pilots should likewise be more advanced." Treize folded his hands behind his back and stepped over to look out the window, standing next to the coffee pot.

The scent of the brown water inside the small office machine was stagnant. Much like the men in the room with him. Could none of them see that more advanced approaches were necessary? Treize forced his stomach to settle, and remembered Antonino's words.

"Are you suggesting that the fault lies in the teaching, Captain?" Chapdelaine asked, an edge in his voice.

The other instructors looked awkwardly back and forth between one another. Treize did not seem daunted by his opponent in the least. "What I am suggesting, lieutenant, is that if you test your students on Leos, they will perform more than adequately."

"It sounds like the young captain has quite a bit of faith in the cadets." The commandant of cadets, Colonel Bernd Von Muschenheim, said. The commandant was an old friend of Adalwulf's, and not one to suffer pettiness either in his cadets or in his instructors. "As perhaps someone on the administrative end ought to."

"Without faith in your subordinates, what sort of a military body do you expect to command?" Treize asked. He and Chapdelaine looked at one another across the staff room.

"This sounds like the sort of thing that deserves a test," Bernd said.

"That it does," Chapdelaine said.

Treize turned back to look out the window that overlooked the base. The sun was shining, and the buildings and the cadets looked clean and fresh. Antonino's words returned to him again. The two of them had been having a drink alone in the billiard room at the Barone's palazzio in Lombardia, after having a meal with several of Antonino's compatriots…

* * *

**AC 192, July 17, 20:00**  
Palazzio Estate of Baronee Noin  
Outside Bormio, Valle dell'Adda  
Lombardia Province, Italy

"How goes the marshalling, Treize?" Antonino asked.

The billiard room was not, strictly, a part of a normal Italian palazzio. But, as Antonino had said when Treize asked, the times changed, and he was of the times and not the mountains. His father, Antonino had said, both of their fathers, were of the mountains.

When Antonino said things like that, Treize felt much younger than he had any right to feel. Antonino was nine years older than him, though, he reminded himself. And the Baronee had lost most of his family. That sort of thing would age anyone.

Unlike the Baronee, Treize's hand was empty.

"Would you like a drink?" Antonino asked, standing. He did not seem disturbed by the lack of response to his initial question.

"A glass of wine will be nice," Treize said.

He was always fond of wine. It was a trait his mother had either given him through genetics or through practice. Élodie often had wine at meals, and between them. It made Treize feel closer to his mother to drink it.

"There was wine at dinner," Antoni said. He had crossed to the small liquor table in the corner of the room. He took out a bottle of something from the fine wood cabinet and filled two glasses.

Not a stranger to drinking, Treize was unsure what his friend brought over, until he was handed the small glass. "Cento di questi giorni**9**," Antonino said, lifting his glass to his friend.

A hundred years… Treize lifted his glass and murmured the words in response before he sipped the drink. As the liquid touched his tongue, it was recognizable. Grappa. He closed his eyes and pondered. Would he like to live for a hundred years? Did his friend truly wish him that long…?

"Perhaps next time I should invite less conversational dinner guests, if I am to loose you afterwards to your thoughts," Antonino said.

"The performance of the cadets is less than exemplary," Treize responded.

"Across the board?"

Treize nodded, and sipped from the small glass again. Antonino did the same, pondering for a moment. His expression cleared, and sobered from his kind thoughtfulness.

"Then you have learned nothing."

Bright blue eyes turned to regard Antonino in surprise, but the tall, dark haired Baronee was turned to the fireplace, staring at the flames as they danced behind the grate. Treize thought to speak, but could find nothing appropriate to say.

"You still leave important matters to others."

* * *

**AC 192, July 27 (Sunday)**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Treize set his shoulders and turned back to the Colonel and the other instructors. "If the cadets prove themselves, I would like to oversee the continuation of their mobile suit training," Treize replied.

* * *

**9** Cento di questi giorni – May you live a hundred years. [An Italian toast 


	13. 3:3

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thesis is a real drag, but I managed to get my copies of my book in! _The Wendy That Stayed_ is my first, ISBN-toting book, published here at through Kavidog Press! (I'm so excited!!) They're available online for order ( ), and they'll be with me and the KaviDog publisher at MegaCon this year in Orlando. Two weeks away!! EEEP.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania 

Early Monday morning found the barracks empty. The hallways of the barracks were clean. Beds were made. The doors were closed, and the janitors were out cleaning the buildings. The entire corps of cadets was out and dressed in their drill uniforms. The three companies of cadets stood at attention on the parade grounds. They were dressed sharply and being addressed by their drill sergeant. Not a word was audible among them, though surely there was talking.

Despite popular reports to the contrary, such public degradation was not normally the way of things for the commanders.

"Marks across the board on mobile suit training are far below the required standards for the piloting of the Taurus mobile suit models expected from the Specials units," a loud-speaker announced to them. The crackle of the PA made everything feel antiquated about the parade grounds. The formation of three companies of cadets stood at attention, listening to the special announcement.

Among the cadets, glances were exchanged. Across the board, the drill sergeant had said. Lucrezia winced, and didn't bother looking over at Zechs to see what his reaction to the announcement would be. Both of them had spent all their recent free time pouring over the manuals in the library and logging in extra hours in the simulators, but something just wasn't clicking with them. There was a hole somewhere, and despite their admitted position as competitors, the two of them were determined to find it. Together, if need be. Of the failures, the two of them were at the top of the class.

"In light of your failure to comprehend piloting the Taurus suits, the entire regiment will be retested on the Leo model. Any cadet failing the assessment will have to retake the entrance requirements." The review line had all of their instructors, and none of them look pleased.

None of them except for Treize Kushrenada. There was a confident smile on his face. But there was almost always a confident smile on his face.

A ripple of whispers floated through the ranks, though the more dedicated cadets held form and said nothing.

"The assessment times will be posted on the call boards on the main floors of the barracks," the drill sergeant said. "Every cadet is to report ten minutes before their assessment in fatigues, prepared to pilot the suit. Every cadet…"

The list of expectations continued for another five minutes before they were dismissed. In the halls outside of the indoor parade grounds, the muttering started among the less dedicated cadets. Noin listened with half an ear as she threaded her way through the disorderliness towards the fresh air outside. Something about the indoor parade grounds always smelled like a combination of horse manure and sweaty soldier.

It made her claustrophobic, the same way the press of bodies in the hall afterwards did. Something about the regimental nature of formation seemed to promote disorder afterwards. The jostle seemed to get a bit more frantic as she got nearer the doors, but she shouldered her way through and made it outside.

Claustrophobia, she thought. Fear of enclosed spaces. For her, fear of being _trapped_ in enclosed spaces, she amended.

Outside the air was a blessing, it was heaven in the fresh air… even though it was hot. She headed slowly across the base towards her barracks. Once she reached them and headed inside, she found herself face to face with a large quantity of the student officers of her unit.

"Noin and Marquise," the company commander, Joe Tiberi, said. He held one finger thrust at the assessment roster. "Top of the list, again."

"I wasn't aware that getting top marks was a punishable offense, Commander," she said. She really wasn't in the mood for this. She just wanted some fresh air… fresh air and a chance to get back to reading over her manual for the exam. She still wasn't up to par on the pre-flight procedures. "Especially when I happen to be topping the list of failures."

Pushing past her company commander, Noin started to head over to check the test roster, but one of the other students flanking Tiberi grabbed her by the arm and twisted it so that she was forced to turn to look at her unit commander.

In any other environment, Joe might be considered somewhat handsome. He was tall enough, he had a good enough body, clear enough eyes and complexion. But the military liked good looking boys, and so he had advanced decently well without having more personality than any other asshole. And once Tiberi was made the unit commander, he'd gotten his friends as his staff.

"Listen to the commander when he's talking to you," Tomas Novoa snapped in her ear.

Lucretia found the grip on her wrist as insulting as it was painful. They had all just finished a large stint of basic training. She arched her back to keep from suffering any sort of sprain, and lifted her foot to ram the heel of her boot into Novoa's crotch. "Get your hands off me,_sir_," she said.

Novoa's grip slackened on her wrist, and he doubled over. With a shrug, she flicked him off her back. He staggered a step or two back.

Tiberi stared at her for a long moment. "You little bitch," he hissed out. He only had one other of his staff with him. He started to say more when the rest of the unit began filing in through the doors.

"If you'll pardon me, _sir_," she said, moving over to check the list. "I've got a test flight to go report to."

Tiberi nodded. Lucrezia saluted before heading out of the barracks past the press of the other cadets. Frankly, she had more important things to worry about.

She was beginning to suspect there was less a problem with her memory, or there would be, if the simulator room was not so cramped. The actual cockpit of a mobile suit, while a very small enclosure in a large object, had screens for two-hundred and seventy degrees of the closure. In the more advanced suits, the ceiling could also be used to display.

While shut in, the pilot was also exposed to everything in every direction of the mobile suit's visual range. Sure, cameras could get worn or malfunction or be targeted by the enemy, but…

It wasn't a stone cellar.

Moving back across the base, she headed for the hangar where they had been assigned to report for the test piloting. Lost in thought, she wondered what the real challenge would be. Simulator runs and proficiency assignments were standard routine. Or at least they were to her and Zechs, and any other cadet who really applied themselves to the training program.

Military discipline… she rubbed her wrist, was the only thing that had challenged her so far at the Lake Victoria Academy. And even that was becoming standard fair after so long.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28; 0950**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

As she neared the hangar, her awareness was drawn outwards from her introspection. There were soldiers standing at the door of the hangar. Soldiers with guns.

The uniforms on their shoulders were more formal looking than those of the Alliance soldiers that were normally seen on the base. The crisp black of the coats was dark and un-worn. There were pins at their necks, white pants on their legs…

She stiffened her spine, let go of her wrist, and headed forward, saluting the two at the door. "Cadet Noin reporting."

One of the two flanking the door nodded, and she headed past them into the hangar. The curved ceiling of the hangar sloped up to accommodate the tall mobile suits that were standing within it. A group of the military instructors stood in the middle of it.

She could recognize Treize's figure standing and giving instructions to a group of similarly black-jacketed soldiers. His voice was too low to carry across the hangar to her. The four soldiers all gave smart salutes and went jogging off to the far end of the hangar at a decent clip. Lucrezia forced her courage to her side, and walked over to the group of instructors.

They turned, and she snapped a salute as crisp as any of the dark jacketed soldiers she had watched a moment earlier. The commandant smiled. "Seniority reigns, Captain," Von Muschenheim said to Treize. "Your foster brother was appointed at the second position for the assessment this morning. Cadet Noin has been here longer, after all."

Once she was allowed to stand at ease, she waited, quietly, for her instructions while the instructors discussed what they were discussing. She could not overhear what it was they spoke of, as the commandant took Treize aside. She kicked herself mentally. Not Treize. _The Captain_._Captain Kushrenada_. Anything but 'Treize'.

Even if he had been solicitous that evening, there was nothing to suggest she was more than a cadet. She was only a cadet.

* * *

Bernd motioned for Treize to step out of the small group of instructors with him. "Testing students against soldiers is an interesting assessment, Treize," the older man said to his friend's son.

"Here I believe the students will have the advantage," Treize said. "The level of proficiency with the Taurus model is not to my liking amidst the Specials."

The older man chuckled and shook his head. "You remind me much of your father, when you talk like that, Captain," he said. He hesitated afterwards.

How different it would be to be in his situation, Treize thought as he stood beside the hardened old commandant. How many soldiers he must have seen walk through his academy, only to leave. How many students must he know are dead and gone.

"Is there anything else, commandant?" Treize asked.

The older man contemplated the younger. "Live ammunition could be considered endangering the cadets."

Looking to the side, Treize watched the commandant, letting his pale eye find the standing figure of Lucrezia, who was dressed in her duty fatigues and waiting with a far-off look in her eye.

"Among the Alliance troops that were selected for this training, there are also members of the Organization…" the Commandant continued.

"I am aware of the backgrounds of the cadets, commandant," Treize said in a stiff voice. More than aware. He and Antonino had a long discussion about the Barone pulling his sister out of the ranks. Treize had won out, citing the young woman's tenacity in pursuing the position.

If anything, he had reasoned to Antonino, his sister was a further credit to their family by displaying her prowess and her genius at her chosen profession, an example of the strength of the bloodline. It was a hard sell, but he managed to convince Antonino that there was nothing wrong with a young woman of rank joining the military. Others had done it. And it was fitting especially, he added, when her course of study would end as a soldier for the Romefellor Organization.

She was the top of her class, alongside his foster brother. If she was not up to the challenge of true combat, more was remiss in the academy than simply the Taurus training.

"Cadets with the intention of progressing into the Oz special forces will pass this assessment without receiving harm to themselves. Live ammunition does not, on the part of the Aries pilots, include heavy explosives. Nothing that will destroy the Leo." He turned back towards where Cadet Noin was waiting. "We should proceed with the assessment."

* * *

Lucrezia did not have a long wait. The conference between the instructors was short, and then she was addressed again.

"Cadet Noin," the MS instructor, Chapdelaine, said, addressing her personally. "The nature of this assessment involves the use of live ammunition in the skirmish. You will be utilizing a flight-capable Leo suit with standard firing attachments. The rocket launchers and missile attachments have been disabled for the assessment. Your assessment will take the form of your performance against four Taurus suits that are likewise carrying live ammunition."

Aside from a slight widening of her more visible eye, Lucrezia was proudly aware that the rest of her stance did not change. Neither her posture, nor her expression moved. She felt the same as she had when Antoni had slapped her. When Lieutenant Commander Chapdelaine finished speaking she brought her feet together and snapped another salute.

"Please proceed to your Leo, cadet," the commandant said.

* * *

Climbing up into the cockpit, she focused on putting one hand up over another, moving one foot at a time. She reached the cockpit, and climbed in. Before strapping herself into the chair, she slid the fatigue jacket off her shoulders. It took a deep breath before she could begin to strap the straps onto herself that would hold her in place in the pilot's seat.

The door closed agonizingly slow.

She flipped the switches that turned on the monitors around her, and gray static came on. Silence, but vision. She felt herself relax into the cushion of the Leo pilot's seat. She could hear her own breathing loud in the closed space. The slide of the nylon and neoprene harness straps where her tank top did not protect her skin.

Another switched turned the sound on.

Live ammunition, huh?

The screens flickered to life around her, and she calmly regarded her view screens, adjusting them to her own likeness. She did this at the beginning of every simulator run. She had trained herself to react to a certain layout of screens in the cramped Leo cockpit.

She reacted well in the simulations.

_Live_ ammunition.

Reaching back into her fatigue jacket, she slid out the goggles she'd been given and fixed them over her head, flipping her hair out of the way in the process. She tucked the thought into her pocket in favor of putting her hands on something more tangible. In the immediate present, the controls of her Leo.

* * *

From outside, the lights on the Leo turned on and the unit stood up straight. The Leo saluted the commanders and turned for the exit to the hangar bay. Treize watched with a withheld sigh. If Lucrezia was hurt, Antonino would be livid. He had already expressed his displeasure at Treize allowing her to continue as an enlistee.

As the Leo reached the door to the hangar, the exterior lights on the unit shut off. Treize watched that closely. It was not part of the running protocol that the exterior lights be disabled during combat… it was a smart move, drew less attention to the unit… but it was not in the procedures for running a Leo.

The thrusters on the back of the Leo engaged, and the unit lifted off the ground almost gracefully, heading into the test zone.

"Shall we go and watch the assessment, Captain?" Bernd asked Treize.

Nodding, Treize motioned for the Commandant to precede him up to the observation tower.


	14. 3:4

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Recovering from MegaCon and getting over a pretty bad case of the cold stuff. I'll probably update again tomorrow to make up for the time lapse. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28; 1050**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

Reporting on time, Zechs snapped a salute to the door guards and supplied them with his name. He was waved through and into the hangar. It was deserted, and he found himself frowning slightly. It was absurd to be required to report to a place that had no one waiting for him to report to.

A waste of time. There was no reason for him to be early like this.

He took a moment to listen, and found he could make out distant voices and reports coming from a room that he soon found was elevated. Seeing nothing to do other than wait, he took an at ease stance with his hands folded behind his back and let his mind wander.

For another five minutes, there was nothing. The distant noise of loud, over-sized gunfire, but nothing else. The sound had long ago ceased to alarm him. Then Aries units began returning to the hangar. There were three of them, that he saw, and they landed in a uniform line on one side of the hangar. Technicians moved forward as soon as the machines had stopped moving, and a solitary figure stepped up as the cockpits opened to allow the pilots to exit.

The figure was not amused, and in the high roofed hangar, the berating voice carried over to where Zechs stood waiting for his own assessment. He could not make out the figure amidst the sprays of coolant used on the Aries' exteriors, but it sounded similar to the lecture the corps had gotten that morning.

* * *

Sweat ran down Lucrezia's temples, and she was grateful for the goggles that kept it, and her damp hair from her eyes. Her skill in piloting the Leo unit was obviously superior, even to the pilots in the Aries units were having problems landing hits on her.

In truth, she preferred that suit to the slower, more awkward Leo, but mastery of one did not negate proficiency with the other. Were she truly in combat, this strategy would not be efficient. Wearing out the enemy's ammunition supply was unlikely to hold true in that situation. However, given the assessment, it seemed to be doing just fine.

Their magazines low, the Aries pilots took to a more frontal approach of attacking her, but still she managed to disable three of the four Aries units without difficulty.

The fourth was proving a problem for her, and thus the heaving of her chest against the harness, the sweat that salted her top lip. She glared at the unit on her screen as it held back and tried to get a clean shot at her.

Clumsy suit! she cursed mentally as the left leg unit was hit by one of the Aries's bullets. The Aries dived forward towards her, and she made a quick decision, holding still as though there were some greater mechanical error with her suit. As the Aries lowered before her, legs extending, and held it's machine gun before her, she heard the wireless transmission.

"Give up, _cadet_."

Another inadvisable move, were she in combat. She swung the arm of her Leo, knocking the gun to the side, and put her own at the suit's cockpit.

"You first," she muttered.

A loud claxon went off that reached the two remaining fighters, and a communication screen opened on the display in front of her. "The assessment is concluded." It was Treize on the little screen. His blue eyes stared out at her, and for a moment she detected a hint of a smile on his lips. "Good work, Baronessa."

And then the transmission cut.

* * *

Zechs heard the claxon as he waited, and shortly thereafter, the commandant, Treize, and the MS instructor filed down some stairs and crossed to them. He saluted as the instructors neared him, and was received by them.

"I must say that was an impressive display from the previous Cadet," the commandant, Bernd Von Muschenheim said as they neared Zechs. "Cunning trick with the lights."

"Cadet Noin likewise has superior skills in piloting the Aries mobile suit. It is, in fact, a poor comparison of her skills in an Aries to remark on those she has in the Leo," William Chapdelaine, the MS instructor, commented to the other two men. He preened slightly at the praise of his pupil.

"I have no doubt in her abilities to pilot _a_ mobile suit, Lieutenant," Treize said in a polished voice, "I am questioning her ability to learn the Taurus suit under these conditions. Tricks that work in one suit do not neccessarily apply to another."

The fire in Chapdelaine's eyes as he regarded Treize was unveiled. The Commandant turned to greet Zechs to avoid the imminent confrontation. "Cadet Marquise," the commandant said, saluting to meet the one that Zechs snapped smartly. "Your predecessor outshined our expectations," he said. "See that you do the same."

Air began to rush around the hangar as a fourth Aries flew in and made a near perfect landing. The cockpit opened, and the pilot leapt out of the cockpit, landing in a crouch on the smooth cement floor of the hangar. The clack of the boots was loud enough to hear only for a moment before the noise of another mobile suit approaching drown them out.

The instructors' eyes turned, along with Zechs's, in the direction of the wide hangar door.

A Leo glided softly on its boosters, returning to the allotted position in the hangar as best it could maneuver, which was almost surprisingly well. As it reached position, it crouched and landed more heavily than it ought to have. Zechs arched a brow in curiosity at that move, but his expression was hidden behind his mask.

"I wonder, Captain, if that behavior is supposed to be indicative of a first rate pilot?" Chapdelaine said to Treize. "Surely, it does not measure up to your exacting qualifications."

Treize regarded the thick man with a look that was somewhere bordering annoyance and disdain. It was the commandant who spoke up. "Landing a Leo unit with a damaged leg is never very graceful, captain, even you must admit that."

A damaged leg? How had the baronessa managed to wound her suit in an assessment? Zechs waited, almost impatiently, to discover the particulars. Part of him was intrigued to think there was live ammunition being utilized in the assessment, and another part of him was worried about what had happened to the baronessa.

* * *

Returning the battered Leo to the hangar was easy enough, it was settling it with the damaged leg unit was the difficult part. She managed it, though she winced as she saw the instructors take a stumble for a moment. She gave them a moment to recover their footing as she powered down the suit and returned the cockpit to rights. Then she got to open the cockpit. Panting for breath, she slid the goggles back from her eyes and let the rush of air dampen the sweat from her face. Her eyes felt dry, as did her throat, and she wanted to go to bed.

But first, she had to get out of the suit.

Standing up on the exit hatch step, she looked down to see that the technicians were waving at her frantically.

"Remain in the cockpit, pilot," the head technician called up, hands cupped around his mouth. "Exterior armor temperature is too great to allow for disembarking."

Around her, the hot air sizzled off the olive painted metal, and she knew that the man was correct. Not normally one for heroics, she nevertheless felt she had a duty to report to her superiors to determine the outcome of the examination. Noin shook her head at the technician and waved him back a step.

It was barely twelve feet from the cockpit of the hunched over machine to the oil-soaked cement of the hangar floor. Taking a step back, she launched herself out of the cockpit and bent her knees in preparation of landing on the ground. A stupid thing to do, except that the drops during PT were nearly twice that, and once or twice she had to flip over a training wall and recover quickly on the other side.

As she straightened to her full height on the cement, she realized her mistake. Having departed the cockpit quickly, she had failed to remember to put her fatigue jacket back on, and it was still draped over the pilot's seat.

Turning towards the instructors, she nonetheless walked smartly and snapped them a sharp salute. Her rapid breathing was managing to level itself out. The space in the hangar was enough to return her normal calm demeanor to her. The breeze was cool on her skin, despite the humidity that lingered in the months after the rains had stopped. The hangar was shaded from the morning sun, and it was a small blessing. The commandant offered a smile as he saluted her in return, Chapdelaine was too caught up glaring at Treize from beneath his hat, and the captain himself surprised the other instructor.

He lifted gloved hands and applauded.


	15. 3:5

**Bel Niente nella Guerra Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Theeeesiiiiis. And a fulltime job now. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28; 1100**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

Behind the group of instructors, Zechs watched her. Despite her stiff salute, there was sweat darkening her tank top and the hair held in place by the goggles perched atop her head. What was going on?

"Congratulations, cadet," the commandant said.

The rest of the words that passed between the commandant and the baronessa were lost to Zechs as he stared at her. Sweat made her pale skin shine, darkened the tank top she was wearing beneath the line that indicated… _exactly_ what was accentuated by her animated breathing.

For a moment Zechs was reminded that while he was in military training, and had been for several years, he was very much still sixteen. He forced himself to concentrate, to bring his attention back to the task at hand. He had an assessment to go through. There was no time to be thinking about the baronessa like that.

She was shaking hands with the commandant. She was shaking hands with Treize. Her attention seemed distracted enough that she had not noticed his reaction. None of them had. Thankfully.

There was noise in the hangar as machinery was moved. Aries suits powered up and took off from their positions. Looking, Zechs saw that these were not the ones he had watched return from the field. A second Leo was brought forward, and the technician climbed out of the suit. The commandant turned to face him, and Zechs saluted in reply.

"This test…"

* * *

Lucrezia was still staring at Treize as the orders were issued to Zechs. She spared the blond haired cadet a look. She was, again, surprised. Despite the attention he was paying to the instructor and the commandant, there was a slight smile on the corner of his lips. His folded hands at his back gave her a thumbs up as she passed.

She smiled a little before she recovered herself. Turning on her heel she headed out of the hangar. Over her shoulder, she could feel the eyes of the instructors on her back. She could feel Treize's eyes.

Every step away from the hangar cemented in her the experience she'd just undergone. The cockpit had been small… the air had circulated poorly. Leo units were not well ventilated. The screens had been appropriately set up so that she could almost anticipate the directions of her attackers. She had trained herself to respond to those screens by working on the simulators.

Her training paid off.

She stopped walking and stared. Live ammunition.

The gun she had was loaded. The cockpit was very real, and if she had pulled the trigger of that gun, she could have killed the pilot of the Aries. Cold blood on her conscience. The pilot would die, and she would be reprimanded. Court marshaled, perhaps.

If it were truly a combat situation, there was no room for hesitation. There was no room for gray area, or doubts, or mercy. That Aries pilot would have tried to kill her, if it were truly combat. If it were truly combat…

Live ammunition.

Missiles were disabled for the test.

Lucrezia stared for a long moment at the ground. She looked up at the buildings around her, and closed her eyes. Her wrist was still sore, it was the only thing that kept her from accepting what she was envisioning. The Lake Victoria facility in flames… the barracks caved in, the buildings razed to the ground. Smashed bits of rock and debris littered the area. War.

The Alliance was at war.

Antoni would not stand for his little sister to be involved in the Alliance. When she had angrily protested that she would not stand aside and do nothing, he had given her the application to the Lake Victoria Academy. 'If you must do this,' he had said to her, anger coursing in the veins around his face and neck, 'do it with a sense of dignity.'

Since coming to Lake Victoria, she had yet to see much dignity.

There had been fighting… she rubbed her wrist. There had been orders and duty… honor, supposedly. Marks and courses. General education, physical training… but very little dignity of the sort Antoni had been remarking on. Or what she had thought he was remarking on.

She turned her head, eyes still closed, and took a deep breath. It was no longer the burning base that Lucrezia saw, she saw nothing. The sounds she imagined were different. The crackle of fire was a dull roar, all sound was muffled. Her wrist throbbed. Darkness darker than the closing of her lids allowed for came rushing in. She could smell the dust in the cellar, she could hear the rumble… the smoke was leaking in overhead…

The dry season alone prevented a panic attack.

It could not prevent the rest. It was a memory that would not go away. Perhaps, she thought as she opened her eyes, it would never be rid of her. Turning from the path that lead back to the barracks, Lucrezia headed in the direction of the mess hall.

* * *

This was familiar. This was easy. Zechs repeated the words to himself as he maneuvered the Leo unit through the training area. The pilots opposite him seemed less familiar with their equipment than he was with this Leo. This was easy.

Live ammunition… the thought of it tugged at his mind in the corner. Some small part of Milliardo that was alive and well and hurt by Zechs' betrayal. There was a larger, newer part of him that ignored Milliardo. This was not the place for a pacifist. It was the pacifist in him that hesitated. That caused scoring to the unit he was in. The pacifist that did not properly disable the Aries units opposite him. The pacifist made a simple assessment into an actual battle.

'Withhold nothing,' a gentle voice whispered to him.

Zechs could not be sure if it was in his mind that the voice spoke, or over his communications devices. It sounded like something Treize had said to him, several years prior.

* * *

The two foster brothers were fencing, a practice Zechs kept up even after he left the company of those left to care for him. Treize could not score a hit on his foster brother, but Zechs was not moving to attack him. Alienating yet another foster family was not high on his list of things to do. It was a burden to Pargan, and dangerous to move around so often. The better he could blend in, the less chance there was of getting himself killed.

At twelve, Zechs thought he had a solid understanding of death.

He could see it when he had a bad dream, he could smell it if he was in the wrong kind of mood… He wanted revenge, but he also wanted to live. He did not want to smell like death, to be a bleeding, broken thing for no reason other than his hair color and his family name.

"Withhold nothing," Treize said, interrupting his thoughts. His greater knowledge of the world amounted to the five years he had lived longer in it, which would be nothing were he not the son of a great general. Treize had grown into a young man to be reckoned with. He knew both the strategy of his father and the politics of his mother.

"There is no cause for it. Either you underestimate your opponent, or you disrespect him. It is not a lesson to be learned on the battlefield."

* * *

Gunfire took over whatever else Zechs could hear or thought he could, and he pressed his lips together, moving his arms with more sharp jerks to get the abused Leo to react properly. It was something he had done before, this was nothing new to him. This… hesitation… he was feeling was new. He had decided long ago, when there was word come to he and Treize about the attack that was happening in Japan. Having had training, Treize had invited him along to show out his skills against an armed force.

His performance then had been filled with explosions and smoke, the firing of missiles and quick dodges. Terrorists meant nothing to him. There was neither honor nor satisfaction in dispatching them. He had done away with them quickly. He had intimate knowledge of the suit he was fighting against.

The hesitation was… what? Milliardo?

What was calling Milliardo back to the surface?

Frowning, the thought that crossed his mind made Zechs growl lowly. Nothing current could undo what had been done. Nothing could bring back what he had lost.

There was no reason this should be considered more than an exercise. The terming of it as an assessment was degrading, in one light. The machine gained a new life, and the Aries units began to react differently to him.


	16. 3:6

**Bel Niente nella Guerra Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thanks to everyone who sticks with this and continues to read and review. I apologize for the tardiness of this posting. Graduation. I have some trouble occasionally with figuring out how to make Zechs into a singular-possessive when it comes to apostrophies. Ugha. Anyway. Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28; 1230**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

Neither Bernd, Muschenheim, nor Chapdelaine had words for Zechs when he disembarked from his Leo unit. Zechs crossed to the knot of instructors waiting for him and snapped a salute. Treize met his eyes through the glass of the helmet and raised a brow slightly in response.

"Dismissed," Treize said after a moment, once it was clear that the other instructors had no words for him.

As he stepped past the waiting cadet, who sneered with the arrogant assumption that going over time had meant that Zechs had failed, his ears snatched a word from the soft conversation the instructors were having about him amongst themselves.

He mouthed it to himself as he headed out of the hangar.

Lightning.

Contemplating the path back to the barracks, Zechs paused in walking. Treize had used that word before… in Japan.

* * *

**AC 191, May 18**  
Outside of Tokyo, Japan

Treize and Zechs were required to join Adalwulf while he was on a tour of the Alliance facilities in the East. The man himself was in a meeting when the notification of the terrorist attack came to them. The soldiers in the control room looked uneasy… they turned to Treize for guidance, and Treize turned to Zechs.

"Seems as good a time as any to see how well your training has been serving you, does it not?" Treize asked, off-handedly. The brotherly competition between them, as well as the camaraderie, was strong at that point.

"Terrorists? This will only take a moment," Zechs replied, smirking at his foster brother. "The battle will end the moment I land in the suit."

He left the control room, and the soldiers stared in worry at him, looking askance to Treize. Treize disregarded their questioning looks.

Zechs did not disappoint Treize's expectations.

It was not until the flight path of his battle took him towards the familiar estate that caution struck him, and anger welled up in his heart. Relief followed, and his worried heart issued words from his mouth that otherwise should not have been spoken.

* * *

**AC 192, July 28; 1245**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

Zechs could feel his boot falls on the warm concrete slabs that made up the walkways. It was then that…

He tried to clear his thoughts, not to think about things that had been said that day, to ignore that which was unimportant. He needed to stay focused, or something similar could happen again. Something similar could rob her of her freedom.

The terrorist… Zechs' mind stayed fixed on the image of the man with his gun… Zechs' own actions in regards to the man were easily considerable as both fair and improper, given the nature of his military intent. What followed between himself and his sister… should not have been said. It was only a few months ago, but he chastised himself for his slip of the tongue heavily.

His own secrecy was unimportant in comparison to the care that must be taken with hers. His little sister was not to be brought into the limelight of any attention in relation to him. Treize had been good enough to keep the interlude outside of the suit from the report that was logged, but good fortune such as what he had gained from his foster brother could not be depended upon indefinitely.

No. Given the change in Treize's personality lately, there was nothing that could be wholly depended upon having from his foster brother.

Zechs paused, turning to look at the buildings he was approaching.

He had no desire to return to the presence of his unit mates at the moment. As he took a deep breath of the midday air, his body reattached itself to his awareness. His chest was heaving, sweat was uncomfortably lining the inside of his helmet as well as dampening his fatigue jacket. Turning from the path, he headed down the lawn towards the rocky incline that lead down to the lake that stretched out alongside the facility.

His time was his own for the rest of the day, whether it was assigned to him or not. He was hot, and he was awake, and he needed to wash Milliardo's hesitation off him. There was nothing left for that person. It had to be that way. What he had done in the end of the assessment, moments before… that was Zechs.

He shrugged out of his fatigue jacket as he slid down the grassy slope towards the lake. Rocks moved with him, tracking his path down to the beach. The sand was like it was all around the lake. The grass trailed up to the edge of the sand, and was brushed back and forth in the breeze.

The humid scent of the breeze caught Zechs' nostrils, and he inhaled deeply.

Nature was always waiting, just to the side of where he was. It was calming, reassuring. Alone at last, he took off his helmet and let the breeze off the lake cool the sweat on his face and brush through his damp hair.

The light was much brighter without the glass between him and it, and he had to shield his eyes until they became used to the sunlight that glistened on the lake's surface. It felt as though his skin was breathing for the first time in months, and he relished the sensation. He closed his eyes and felt the warmth on his face a comfort.

"So you do take that thing off," a voice from nearby said.

Tensing, Zechs turned. None of the other cadets ought to be out of bounds like this. He was technically AWOL by being there…

From twenty feet down the beach, Lucrezia smiled at him. Her boots were off and she was standing ankle-deep in the water. Her dark hair shined in the sunlight. It was probably as dampened with sweat as his was, he reflected, but there was something altogether more attractive about her sweaty.

"Only at certain times," Zechs replied.

He moved to put it back on when she spoke again. "Your hair's gotten longer since I last saw your face."

A smile pulled the corners of his mouth, and he bent to set the helmet down on the sand, crossing to stand closer to where she was. Her fatigue jacket was still absent, and her tank top still clung to her skin. She didn't turn to face him, even when he stood behind her. She continued to stare out over the lake, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight.

"Hair grows," Zechs replied, feeling somewhat lame as the words left his mouth.

"I keep cutting mine." Small talk. She glanced over at his helmet and turned to look at him. "Not hiding the big secret from me?"

"You've already seen my face," Zechs said.

There was silence for a moment before she spoke again.

"Take your boots off," Lucrezia replied. Zechs blinked for a moment. "Come on, just do it. Socks too. You may want to roll up your fatigues."

Bending, he did as he was instructed. "Why do you want me to do this?"

"Because it feels good," Lucrezia said to him simply. She tossed her boots to the sand beside him, and he stood, a pale man with pale hair on a brown beach.

But then they both seemed pale, he reflected. He stepped up beside her, and the lake water was cold on his toes. Cold and wonderful. He took another deep breath, and felt the tension slipping out of his shoulders. It slid down his back and legs and drained right out of his toes into the cold lake water.

Fingers slipped around his hand.

The tension came right back. His heart rate tapped him on the shoulder to remind him how fast it was going… still. Blinking blue eyes, he turned to look at Lucrezia, and found himself caught in her eyes.

With a firm tug on his hand, Lucrezia pulled him over to her, and leaned her face up to press her lips against his. Warm and surprisingly soft… Zechs was surprised.

Too surprised to react in time to keep it from ending.

Lucrezia pulled back and ran her tongue along her top lip. "Yeah… sorry."

Hormones… adrenaline… relief… If Zechs were not sixteen, he might have recognized the moment for what it was… but even if he had recognized it, he might not have exercised any more restraint than what he did. His hand wrapped around hers and he pulled her back over to him, kissing her firmly.

He was not wearing his mask, then, and she was not fighting for anything. The two of them, for the briefest instant, as they kissed of their own consent, were at peace.

A loud noise approached quickly overhead, and the two of them pulled their lips from one another in time to duck when an Aeries unit zoomed over the water, making a turn. The exhaust from the flight engines warmed the water beneath it and sent sprays of it flying. The two of them were splashed thoroughly with the water.

The Aeries zoomed upwards, and Lucrezia started laughing.

For a moment, Zechs was unsure whether or not he found it funny. And then he realized that it wasn't funny, but that laughing was the right response. He joined her laughter, and the two of them collected their boots.

From down the beach, his helmet shined at him.

He looked at Lucrezia, who still had his hand in her grip… whose hand he was still holding as well, and then back at the helmet. She caught his pause and followed his gaze, looking down at the helmet where it shone in the midday sun. She let go of his hand and sat down on a dry patch of sand to put her fatigues back in order.

Zechs thought to say something… but there wasn't anything to say.

There was a kiss that had happened. Probably long overdue. There was a shared connection between the two of them. Shared time… similar experiences…

He sat down beside her and put his boots and fatigues back to rights. They stood together, and then he headed over to get his helmet. She followed, without saying anything. Unceremoniously, he put the helmet back on his head and the two of them climbed back up the grassy incline that lead to the facility.


	17. 4:1

**Bel Niente nella Guerra Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. I'm sorry the update was, once again, late. Comcast has been very finicky and so I'm having to squeeze time in around my off hours at work. There are indeed references to the Episode 0 manga (even though I've not managed to get my hands on a copy of it myself, there are _excellent_ summaries and things if you look for them). As for what happened between Zechs and Treize… well, everything is connected. Please continue reading.

* * *

**AC 192, July 30 (Wed)**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
North Barracks  
Northwestern Tanzania

Laying on her bunk, she stared up at the underside of the bunk above hers. Two things were weighing on her mind. Zechs, and the results of the assessment. She was showered and dressed for her next class. She had completed drills and PT that morning and the day before… but both were still on her mind and more prominent than the appointment her brother had made for them that evening. There was another event that he required her attendance at. It was farther from her mind than she thought possible, given that she had spent her free time for the last two evenings making arrangements for the transportation and filling out the appropriate forms and paperwork to allow herself off the base.

It was not Treize's responsibility to manage her travel permits and plans. Nor did Zechs have anything to do with it. But at the moment, her mind was focused on the blond young man.

More than ever she wondered why it was that he was wearing the helmet. But less than that, she wondered what made it so easy to fall into… such a level of intimacy she felt whenever she was around him. On the yacht, she had wanted to be forced into his arms much more than Savoy's. And then on the beach… if the Aries hadn't made that flyby…

She knew there was a blush on her cheeks, and her thoughts were turned to Erme. She often looked like that in the evenings when she would come home from something. Lucrezia had never understood why… but suddenly it started to make sense.

A smile played on her lips, and she closed her eyes. Antoni would have a fit. He…

Slowly, Lucrezia's eyes opened and she stared up at the bunk again. She could see the rafters of the basement room, and she could smell the smoke. Antoni would have a fit, she concluded, if he knew that she was wasting her time worrying about a boy when she had professed a desire for revenge.

_Erme_, she thought to herself. _Ines, mater… pater…_

The blush on her cheeks cooled swiftly, and she turned and rose from her reclining position. She lifted her books in one arm, feeling stiff, and headed out of the barracks past the other young men in her unit. There was nothing to feel jubilant over. What had happened on the beach was a matter for the beach and the lake to worry about, not for her.

She checked the duty roster on the bulletin board on her way out of the building and saw that the results for the assessment were posted. She and Zechs were once again at the top of the rankings. The other names on the list did not matter to her. There was a meeting, and it superceded any other classes they were assigned to. Glancing at her books, Lucrezia decided to take them with her. A notepad was included among them, and she figured that would be necessary for the briefing.

* * *

The room was empty as he entered it, except for her. He paused in the doorway, unsure of himself for a moment. Milliardo was unsure. Frowning, he crossed the room and took a seat next to her. She surprised him by not looking up. Did she regret what they had done on the beach? Had someone caught them coming back onto the grounds and reported them?

No, surely not. There was nothing to regret from that patch of sand. He would be reprimanded for such a breach of rules as she would. Here, he was just another soldier, another cadet.

There was silence between the two of them that stretched on.

He turned to look at her, and found that she was looking down at her open notebook with a blank gaze. "Noin," he said.

She glanced at him, and the door opened again. The other cadets started to join them. Zechs found himself displeased. But at the same time, the look in her eyes would have stopped any gentle queries he had to make of her. Whatever he wanted to know from her would have to wait for later. This was not the time, her eyes said to him.

Zech contented himself with other knowledge in the stead of what he truly wanted to know. Having checked the list, he was pleased to note that Savoy had not made it into this briefing.

There were ten other students that arrived, and after that, his foster brother entered the room. Watching Treize walk, in his uniform with the shiny black boots, was like watching the man's mother in that riding outfit years ago. For a moment, he was not certain that it was not Élodie that crossed to stand at the front of the room.

And then Treize opened his mouth, and he was instantly an image of no one other than himself.

"You have come to Lake Victoria to join the OZ specials," he began. "It is a position that you are all on your way to earning, but a decision you have yet to make. Simply joining the ranks of the elite Alliance forces, being instructed to a position of knowledge, does not qualify you to become a true member of the Specials."

Zechs knew this speech, he had heard it before. He had been present at one of the other meetings that Treize had with his up and coming soldiers. It was something that Treize believed in… beyond question.

"To become a soldier is to join the ranks of those who risk their lives to fight for their ideals. If you chose to become a member of the Specials, you will honor a tradition that is ingrained in our species as integrally as the blood that flows through our veins."

Treize stepped over to the podium. The lights dimmed and a projector turned on.

"The Aries units you were assessed against were piloted by other soldiers wishing to join Oz. After a further assessment, those passing will join me for three months of training at the Alliance facility on X-18999."

Zechs's eyes turned over to look at Lucrezia, slightly, as far as he could see in the holes of the mask without turning his head, but she appeared to be diligently watching the projection, taking notes on the mobile suits that Treize was going on to discuss with them. It did not appear that Treize would be conducting the training himself, though he would be present at the facility, but the amount of… personalized instruction that he was giving to those who had passed the Leo assessment was strange.

Much was strange about Treize these days.

The briefing ended, and Lucrezia was quick to get to her feet and salute as they were dismissed. He started to say something, but Treize caught his eye. Zechs held back from saying anything, and Lucrezia filed out of the room with the other cadets. She was engulfed in the other cadets in the hallway, and he watched Savoy and Stangel join her. The three of them headed for the mess hall.

She did not offer a backwards glance to him at all.

This was so personal, it stung.

Something _had_ happened.

When the door closed behind the other cadets, Treize adjusted his gloves and took a seat at one of the desks. "You seem distracted," he said.

Zechs turned blue eyes on his foster brother. Was this really the sort of place to have a heart to heart discussion of things? "Perhaps I am."

"You were most impressive at the assessment. But you seemed distracted then as well," Treize commented. His clear blue eyes found Zechs's despite the mask between them. "Whatever it is that is distracting you should be removed. There is no place on the path you have chosen for doubt and hesitation."

For a moment, Zechs stared at Treize. The tall, ginger haired man looked at him with a frank expression. He was being honest at least. He was trying to play the role of big brother. He was trying to offer advice.

He was advising against Milliardo.

Zechs had already decided he was not Milliardo.

"I have known enough loss in my life to understand that completely," Zechs said, lips pressing into a frown. Perhaps he was wrong about that. Perhaps his resolve wasn't so firm as he thought.

"Perhaps," Treize said, meeting the frown with a stern tilt of his lips. "But there is one thing that death cannot take from you."

Silence. Zechs did not want to have this discussion. He wanted to know what Treize was hinting at without the games that he seemed to be playing. Without the formality and the cordial politeness. What was it that death could not take from him? Duty? Remorse? Guilt?

Treize said nothing more of what he was referring to than he just had. He offered no hints, and no clues. He watched his foster brother, and saw the blue eyes close in. He would get no hints himself from the younger man. He changed the subject.

"I do not wish for you to accompany me this evening," he said. "I have business to attend to that will not be helped by your presence."

Zechs nodded. "If you feel that way, then I'm sure you must be right," he said. "If you'll excuse me, the mess hall only serves lunch for an hour." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and headed out the door.

* * *

Antoni had been more… thoughtful with her attire for the evening. She was allowed to change once she arrived on the transport, and so she risked neither exposing her identity to her classmates and instructors, nor causing a scene with the jewelry at the gate. The car that arrived to pick her up at the gate was logged, but as she climbed into it, the door was kept open.

Leaning out to ask the driver, she saw that the Captain was making his way to the car. Another limousine ride with Treize. She leaned back into the car, putting her hands on her legs. It did not have to be unpleasant.

Treize ducked into the back of the car and sat down on the leather seat beside her. The driver rounded the car at a brisk clip and the vehicle pulled away from the gate.

"It seems that we cannot be without one another on these excursions," Treize said, adjusting his cloak across his lap in the back of the car.

"You are traveling light, it seems," Lucrezia replied to him. "Where's Marquise?"

"I felt that his presence might hinder the evening's negotiations," Treize said.

There was silence in the rear cab of the car as it headed towards the space port, and Lucrezia let the air soak it up without offering anything further. The car descended on its way to Kisumu. She could see the lights of the transport strip even through the dark windows separating the passengers from the driver of the limousine.

"I wonder if you might be able to tell me what is distracting Zechs," Treize said aloud. "His assessment, while in top form, took much longer than yours."

"I couldn't say what distracted him then," Lucrezia replied, looking straight ahead. In her mind, she was forcing herself to remember her dead family every time she started to think fondly about Zechs. She had not come to Lake Victoria, she had not joined the Specials to land a handsome boyfriend.

"You could say what distracted him since then, you mean?" Treize's voice was knowing, and to her stressed ears, it sounded smug.

Lucrezia turned her head slightly to look at the Captain. Her brother's pride in her stiffened her jaw and straightened her spine as she sat beside him. She was next to be a Baronessa. She had the lineage of her parents to consider, whether they were dead or not. She let her eyes talk for her, willing to indulge none of her own secrets to Treize that he did not already know from Antoni.

"I would wager you could," Treize said when she did not respond. "But it is something private that I would not ask you to divulge. One must take care when discussing things with a lady of any standing."

A fluid turn of her head took Lucrezia's gaze out the window, and she ignored Treize. The rebuke she had expected to come from her brother seemed to be coming from the Captain instead. There were rules against fraternization amongst officers, but neither she nor Zechs were officers. And there had been very little fraternization. What of it there had been, she had stepped back from since then. She had a reason to be in the Specials, and she would not let him get in the way of that.

"I will say this, whether you heed my words or not," Treize said. He was still talking. It was irritating, at the moment, to be forced into a sibling position with her superior officer simply by the necessity of their shared transportation. "A soldier cannot afford distractions. But having nothing does not make a good soldier either."

"What do you mean by that?" Lucrezia asked softly.

"Zechs has lost many things in his life," Treize said.

Turning her eyes towards Treize, Lucrezia's brow furrowed, "Captain…"

"I told you," he said, tilting his head in her direction slightly, "when we are at away from the base, I am simply Treize Kushrenada." He shifted in his seat and settled his head back against the leather headrest. His eyes closed, and he ignored her for the rest of the ride.


	18. 4:2

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: I can't believe we're already at chapter 18. I feel like the story has such a distance to go before we reach the end of it. I apologize for the lag between updates, as my bio got updated today to say, my internet is down, and while my boss is ok with me occasionally doing non-work things at my desk, uploading fanfic is a bit much even for her to tolerate. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I may update a second one if I can get the space to do it this weekend. I've been very touched by everyone's response to the fic, and I thank you all for your reviews, as usual. I like to think of Treize (and the other characters here) as being on their way to becoming who they are in the series. The events of this story are meant to explain some of the things that happen in the series. Keep an eye out for more of the canon cast to show up.

* * *

**AC 192, July 30; 2100  
**Alliance Space Port  
Outside of London, UK

Antoni was accepting of her appearance when Treize handed her down from the transport they had arrived in. He did not seem pleased of something else, however. She could read it in the way his feet were planted against the tarmac where the shuttle had landed. She could see it in the crispness of his clothing and the straightness of his spine.

Treize kept hold of her elbow as they crossed the steps to him, and handed her formally to Antonino. The Barone looked far more put off in person than he had from the twenty foot distance.

"Luc," he said to his sister as she joined him at his side.

"Antoni," she replied.

"I see you did not bring your fosterling," Antoni said to Treize as the two men turned and lead the way over to the waiting limousine.

"I thought it might be best for only those of us with titles to be present. It makes a bigger impression on the masses to see that those of like stature speak as one."

Lucrezia watched Treize's expression as he said it. She did not believe him. She knew Zechs much better than… she glanced over at her brother, and the taller man seemed to comprehend the same falsehood in the Captain's speech that she had. "I'd think it'd show better that someone outside of the know supported you, but maybe that's just me," she said.

Treize chuckled at her statement, but offered no response.

The three of them climbed into the limousine, and the car moved away from the shuttle landing pad. Lucrezia watched her brother and Treize from her seat. Antoni turned his eyes on her once they were all three seated inside the car, and she met his eyes unwaveringly. Antoni's lips smoothed into a smile.

"You look beautiful," he said to her. "The clothing suits you. You finally seem to be coming into the weight of your position."

Knowing better than to reply at her disapproval of such things, Lucrezia held her tongue, and dipped her head slightly. She did not wish Treize to see her slapped for disobedience, or otherwise rebuked by her brother. Treize respected Antoni, and she respected Treize. Sometimes she had her doubts about him, but she did not want to lose standing in front of him.

"Romefellor would be fortunate to have more young women of the quality of Lucrezia," Treize said.

Her eyes turned to Treize again.

"Romefellor disregards young women of my sister's quality," Antonino said. His tone was bitter and almost hissed like acid meeting metal. "It discards them."

It took the better part of an hour to arrive at the building where that evening's event was to be held. Treize and Antoni discussed strategy the rest of the ride, and Lucrezia turned her thoughts back to Lake Victoria… and Zechs. What had Treize meant when he spoke to her on the way to Kisumu? What was it that Zechs lost? Was it his family? Could that be enough to mean he had nothing in his life worth fighting for?

He was considered to be Treize's foster brother. Even before he wore the mask, which had to be some sort of identity protection… he had been alone. His loss could not, then, have been recent. And whatever loss he had suffered had been a dangerous one that caused him to hide.

Her heartbeat quickened some. Was Zechs a victim of battle casualties, like herself? Was it something they had in common? Lucrezia pressed her lips together, thinning out the curve of them as she did so. Did it matter what they had in common? They were soldiers… or training to be soldiers. Shared experiences did not supercede her desire for revenge.

The limousine pulled to a stop in front of wherever they were going for the evening. She could not point her memory in the appropriate direction of that to say where in London they were going. Instead, she kept her mind focused on the cold feeling inside her chest.

A uniformed, glove-wearing servant opened the door to the limousine, and Treize was the first to climb out onto the carpet-covered cement that was before the ornate looking building. The front of the Royal Opera House was lit well. The pillars darkened at the middle where the light tapered off. The façade of the building towered above the street it was situated on, making it the most important building in the area. Long since had the other buildings been replaced or refitted. Some of them torn down, but the Royal Opera House was left standing in all its old world beauty.

Antoni moved to follow Treize, and once he had found his feet on the carpet covered sidewalk, he reached a hand back into the rear of the car for her. Stepping out, she was unsurprised to find that she was not the only well-dressed young lady in attendance, nor was she surprised to find that there was a small crowd gathered. There were photographers and eager on-lookers. She did not want her picture in the paper. The hand on her brother's forearm tightened. Antoni did not want her recognized either, surely? She looked up at his face, and a glance from the corner of his eye stilled her doubts.

Treize moved ahead of them, and the photographers turned to meet him.

Antonino guided her past them at a stately pace, neither rushing nor lingering for attention. This was not what they had come to the gathering for. As they passed in through the doors, held open by other servants, he spoke to his sister.

"No, I do not intend to parade our family before the media. I do not intend to expose your distasteful choice, or appraise your classmates or the other members of the Alliance of your identity. A background check by your superiors would do that for me, had they the foresight to observe things." The lobby passed by slowly. Their footsteps echoed off the marble.

Lucrezia expected to be lead forward into the main doors, but Antoni turned and headed up a staircase, still speaking with her.

"My family is important to me, and I do what I can to protect it." A curtained hallway was opened for them. It led to a carpeted hallway that was dimly lit and quiet. "To protect you. The media presence was… unexpected, but not unanticipated entirely."

The carpeted hallway he lead her down was ornate and beautiful. The muted tones allowed for appraisal without calling undue attention to the décor. Another curtain was opened, and the siblings stepped into the theater box they had been approaching. An attendant handed them two pairs of opera glasses and programs.

"_Non ci sono parole per dirti quanto ti sono grato_ -9-," Lucrezia said softly as she took her glasses from the uniformed man. She turned her eyes to her brother.

Antoni ignored her gratitude, but she could detect a slight smile on his lips as he opened the program. Moments passed. The orchestra tuned itself below, and the curtain was opened again. Treize joined them in the box, accepted his program and opera glasses.

Before Treize took his seat, a soft voice from beside Lucrezia said, "_Prego_ -10-."

She wanted to read the look on her brother's face as he said it, but she avoided it. Treize took the seat on the far side of her, then, and Lucrezia focused her attention on the opera taking place on stage, and found herself able to forget the company she was in, and the company she was lacking to be there. Her busy mind rested.

* * *

9 – I can't begin to thank you. (I believe this to be a formal way of saying thank you)

10 – You're welcome. (I believe this is an informal way of saying that)


	19. 4:3

**Bel Niente nella Guerra Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: And thus chapter 19. If worked the way my webcomic site did, these updates would be much more regular. With the wordpress features, I can upload a whole month's worth of updates in a single day, and they release on a schedule. Otherwise, between inking and preparing for conventions outside of my 50 hour office schedule. I am thankful to everyone's support and the continued readership of the story. We've got a ways to go yet, so stay tuned.

* * *

**AC 192, July 30; 2130**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
South Barracks  
Northwestern Tanzania

Zechs frowned as he stared, still, at his textbooks. The barracks were quiet. The other boys were at the student activity center, or on weekend leave passes down in Kisumu. He had been instructed to stay behind by Treize, and so he was. But studying was proving futile. He put his legs over the side of his bunk and got to his feet.

Where was it Treize had gone that evening? It had to be on Romefellor business… Treize only ever refrained from comment when it had nothing to do with the military. Zechs cared very little for the pretentious crowd of socialites and politicos that would be smiling crystal facades at one another, but… he also knew that if it was a Romefellor gathering, the Baronessa would be in attendance. Why was he left behind? He frowned as he straightened the corners of the blankets on his bunk.

Preoccupation…

He thought back to the year prior, and the feel of the Aries controls in his hands. The certainty fixed in his mind that what he was doing was right. The terrorists lives had been meaningless to him. For a long while, Zechs stood and stared at the empty barrack. The fluorescent overhead lighting made the silver of his helmet glint a sickly green light. He turned and headed out the door of the barracks.

Aries was the next assessment.

After that would follow zero gravity Taurus training.

Could he afford to allow this distraction take a firm hold in him? Was it true to what he had sacrificed for what he desired most?

He had only seen the graceful Taurus suits in motion when accompanying Treize to or from an engagement on the Colonies. The man was well connected, and thanks to his father, and his own ambitious nature, he was quickly becoming more and more important in the Romefellor Organization.

Zechs's bootfalls were the only noise outdoors in the area of the base where he was walking. He was alone in the dark. He reached the hangar bay, checked in with the guard, and headed in to look up at the mobile suits that were standing motionless and dead in their docks. A few technicians were running diagnostics up on the catwalks, but they did not notice him as he entered.

In comparison to the suits, a human being was easily lost in the space of the hangar. Compared to the might of the mobile suit, the sacrifice of a man to the engine of war was less impressive than a grain of sand on the shore of a beach. Romefellor had money, and so mobile suits were easily acquired. Preferring to keep to the shadows and manipulate, they used the Alliance to forward their interests. With the might of the machines, they had the advantage over their enemies. Because they were seen favorably, or rather, because the Alliance was seen favorably, there was no shortage of manpower to operate the machinery.

Without their money, would any of this happen?

One of the attendants spotted him as he headed into the large space, and lifted a hand in greeting towards him. It was not a friend of his, he did not have friends at Lake Victoria, and if he did, his friend was absent that evening. He climbed the stairs and headed to the simulator.

This was a good use of his time, much better than anything he could think of doing otherwise. Much better than studying, or than thinking helplessly about someone who was not present. It only lead to bad things, thinking like that.

He could hear the echoes of questions in his head as he stepped into the simulator.

Was that how his father felt when he first met his mother? Was that what one was supposed to do with a woman one admired? Was this something like what had changed Treize four years ago?

The simulator lacked the hiss of the mobile suit, it did not have the same slight vibration caused by the engines. There was no closing of the doors, no pressurization. There were things that the simulators could not accustom the potential pilot to. Those were the things that often shook up pilots when they got into a mobile suit.

It was the lack of such things that made Zechs uneasy about training on a simulator. He liked the slight shiver of the cockpit, the dull whine computers in the contained space. The gentle rumble of the machinery, however faint, was soothing to him. The room with the simulator was, by contrast, empty.

There was nothing in the room to close him off from anything, nothing in that room to make him special. It made him a nameless number in the computer system.

It reassured him, and at the same time it wounded his pride. It hurt his ego to think that there was nothing special about him in the instant of training. He had been born to a life of notoriety, and here he spent hours behind a mask. His life of notoriety had been stolen from him, and he was angry. He wanted not only his life, but his family back. He wanted Relena. Wanted her with him, and yet had never truly known his baby sister.

And what, he thought as he went through the inadequately reproduced pre-flight procedures, did his loss have to do with the baronessa? What did Lucrezia Noin have in common with him? What could they share, what could they be…

They were soldiers.

He closed his eyes as the program loaded on the screen, and imagined himself strapped properly into a harness seat inside a darkened cockpit. The only light was from the screens, he had not switched anything else on. There was noise of the audio speakers, and as the program loaded itself, the alert windows on the monitors began flashing. Beeps happened on and off.

A dance of the senses, of reaction. That was piloting. A means to an end.

What else could there be?


	20. 4:4

**Bel Niente nella Guerra Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: I think I'm giving up the 2 week update schedule. It really doesn't work on my part, and I just end up feeling bad that I don't update more often. I'm going to post two chapters tonight, because this one's short.

* * *

**AC 192, July 31, 0400**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

It having been impossible to sleep in the box at the theater and the car that took the two of them back to the transport launch, Lucrezia found it strange that she had fallen asleep in the transport on the way back to Tanzania shortly after she changed back into her duty uniform. She woke surprised to find that she was not in the transport, but in the limousine. She sat up from where she was draped on the plush leather seat, and looked around.

The only other person in the limousine was Treize. Surely her brother hadn't moved her from the transport. She'd said goodbye to him and seen him get into a limousine. The evening had been filled with talking and smiling for the other guests, and at the end of it, she and Antoni had stepped out a side door and gotten into a limousine. The limo pulled around to the front of the theater and collected Treize separately, to keep down the press coverage.

On the transport, once they boarded it, she had excused herself and changed back into her duty uniform, the same one she had signed out in. And then she'd fallen asleep in the comfortable seats of the transport. It was not hard to do. Treize had been talking quietly on a mobile phone with someone in German, and she was too tired to listen to the conversation for comprehension. He must have fallen asleep once they left the transport and got into the limousine that was taking them back to the base.

Tilting her head, Lucrezia watched Treize while he slept. His hair was coming out of its usual slick back, and his face looked much softer when it was relaxed. He looked older, without his eyes, she thought. But then maybe she was wrong. Maybe Treize looked younger without his eyes involved. Sleeping supposedly did that to a person… made them look younger.

The limousine stopped, and Lucrezia gathered herself, checking to be sure she was not leaving anything behind in the cab of the car. Treize remained still. The driver opened the door, and he still didn't move.

Lucrezia moistened her lips before reaching over to wake him. She put a hand on his rotator cuff and shook him gently. "Captain," she said softly.

He didn't rouse himself, despite the gentle cough of the driver as he held the door open for the car's occupants.

"Captain," she repeated a second time. "Captain, you should wake up."

"I'm still tired, Leia," he said in a hazy voice. One hand reached up and took hold of Lucrezia's wrist.

Feeling very awkward, Lucrezia stared at Treize in silence. Her mind was running circles around her. Treize was holding on to her. Treize was talking in his sleep. One of her commanding officers had a hold of her wrist. A faint smile grazed Treize's lips.

Lucrezia pulled her arm free of his hand as he pulled on it to bring her closer.

Treize's blue eyes opened and he stared up at Lucrezia.

Looking down at him, he seemed so human. The sharp blue of the soldier in his eyes was asleep, in a resting peacefulness.

"Lucrezia," Treize said.

"Captain," she replied. She didn't know what else to say to him. Stepping away from him, she climbed out of the limousine that had brought them back to the base and stretched a little. She'd put on her duty uniform the night before, guessing this would happen. The pre-dawn hours were unfair as a returning time, considering she had physical training in half an hour.

But it couldn't be helped.

Behind her, as she progressed through the main gate, signing herself back into the facility, Treize stood and watched her, his blue eyes awake once more.


	21. 4:5

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Second chapter for this evening's update. Please enjoy.

* * *

**AC 192, August 5  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

The hangar was filled with the muttering noise of annoyed cadets working on their assessments. Half had their backs flat underneath whatever part of the mobile suit they were working on, and the other half were seated and instructing. Savoy and Noin had the air circulation unit on the rear of the Taurus unit they were working on. Beside them, Stangel lay crouched, flat on his back underneath a leg unit that needed diagnostics for the loss of power it was experiencing. Affe had been assigned to a different unit after the Leo assessment, and Zechs had taken his place.

There was little chatter among the four of them.

Zechs could not figure out how to get Lucrezia alone or to speak about something other than their assignments, and neither Savoy nor Stangel were happy that he had replaced their friend in the group. It was obvious that Zechs's assignment to the top unit was permanent, however, by the marks he was continuing to receive on the assessments and in the mobile suit drills.

Leo training had replaced morning PT exercises.

Savoy was becoming more and more annoyed as the months wore onward, though Zechs couldn't say why that was without speaking more to the young duke than he deemed neccessary.

"This is a stupid assessment," Savoy said, pressing his palms into his eye sockets where he was trying to review the manual to assist Lucrezia.

She was not asking him for any instructions, however.

"Third redundant circuit is where the short is," Stangel said with a note of triumph in his voice. He was warming to Zechs as a part of their unit much more readily than Savoy was, though there was still a layer of silence between the two of them.

Zechs had the manual open, but was perusing it after giving the instructions to the slender red headed cadet. He wagered that both he and Lucrezia had nearly memorized the manuals. It was the only explanation of why Savoy was being so useless in the assessment.

"Wire test against the primary breaker to see if bypassing the circuit will solve the problem," Zechs said. He'd completed this assessment on the first day, along with the non-critical system test, which was what Lucrezia was working on.

The reasoning behind it was sound. If a pilot could repair major problems, it could save their life. Treize seemed very firm about what knowledge was essential for the toolbox of his Specials soldiers. Where this laundry list of knowledge came from, no one was quite sure, and as part of the essentials was a rigid discipline and loyalty, none of the cadets questioned what they were being instructed in.

"I'm never going to use this," Savoy said, turning a page.

Lucrezia slid out from under the unit she was working on, the dolly moving with a quick jerk of one of her boot heels on the hangar floor. She kept her feet otherwise off the concrete, sliding until she reached the toolbox. Then she sat up to look for what she was missing.

Savoy's mood had him ignoring her.

Zechs found the economy of her motion fascinating. He watched her as best he could without turning his head too much. Something still wasn't right there. He couldn't figure out what it was, but she seemed angry.

He could laugh at himself, talking like that. She seemed angry. As though she had no right to be angry, and nothing could be bothering her. Right, he thought, nothing bothering her. Which is why she hasn't spoken to you in almost a week.

Thinking so hard, and with Savoy muttering under his breath about how stupid the assessment was, Zechs didn't hear the boot falls of Lieutenant Commander Chapdelaine as he approached the group of them. What he did notice was that Lucrezia slid out from under the unit and snapped a ready salute. He and Stangel followed her example, but it took a moment before Savoy was brought around to the proper attitude towards his superior.

"Cadet Savoy, report to the Officer in Charge for reassignment," Chapdelaine said. "Cadet Noin, progress?"

"Complete, sir," she replied, relaxing when Chapdelaine returned their salutes.

"And your partner?" Chapdelaine asked. Lucrezia looked straight ahead and did not offer any response. "I see," the instructor replied. "Come with me, Cadet."

Zechs did his best to keep his eyes wift as they left the small area. Stangel did not seem impressed with the same discipline. He watched his friend as he headed away, and shook his head. "I told Savoy he was on his way down to meet Affe," Stangel said softly.

"Told him?" Zechs asked, turning his head to watch Noin follow Instructor Chapdelaine off through the hangar.

"Mooning over Noin isn't going to get him to pass his assessments. Some of the other cadets have been saying that the Leo training is because the Captain is going to take the top students to space to train on the Taurus units," Stangel said.

Zechs turned his attention back to the Leo they were repairing, and nodded. That was exactly correct, but not all of the cadets had made it to the meeting Treize held for the cadets with the highest marks. "We should get back to work then," he said to his partner for that afternoon.

* * *

**AC 192, August 5, 1230  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Lucrezia followed in the hangar's observation room, her eyes trained straight ahead of her. The midday sunlight failed to filter into the hangar, but she could feel the warmth of it on the high-rib steel over her head. It warmed the room. The instructors and assistants viewing the assessment had their collars unbuttoned. All except for one.

Treize Kushrenada sat at one console. He was leaning on an elbow, watching through the one-way glass out onto the hangar floor. A clipboard graced the small counter that sat at the base of the consoles beside him. There was a private giving him a report, but as Chapdelaine lead Lucrezia toward him, the Captain waved the private away.

Snapping a crisp salute, Lucrezia clicked the heels of her boots together.

" 'When it comes to the electronic systems, the Taurus suit is more similar to that of the Aries model, however, if one considers weight distribution, the Leo unit is more similar,'" Treize read from a paper that was attached to the clipboard.

She recognized it immediately. Prior to Treize's arrival on the base, prior to Zechs showing up, there had been an examination on the various models of mobile suits that were utilized by the Specials. Each cadet was required to evaluate three of the suits and compare them. Being well versed in the manuals of the suits, even if she was still learning to be proficient in their maneuvering, Lucrezia's paper had focused on the similarities and differences in what were her strong points.

The paper had been awarded top marks. She had been placed at the top of the class. It was a dubious honor, being so singled out.

"I wonder if there is need of testing in the Aries unit to see how you fare," Treize said, resting the clipboard on his knee. He set it aside on the console after a moment and rose, heading for the rear doorway to the observation deck.

After a pause, Lucrezia followed him through the doorway, and was only somewhat surprised to find herself on an exterior observation deck. Treize took up a position near the railing, on the side of the lake…

Lucrezia watched him, standing at attention, waiting for whatever words he had that he did not want the other officers to hear.

There was a rather long pause. Lucrezia felt the breeze play with her hair for a moment. And then she noticed the beach… The birds' eye view of the beach that was visible from the observation deck of the hangar. A blush threatened to color her cheeks. She recognized that particular section of beach…

"Your marks in classroom examinations as well as practical assessments are exemplary, Cadet Noin," Treize said. He had his hands folded behind his back, and was looking at the base, rather than in the direction of the beach.

Maybe he hadn't seen anything… there would have been several of the commanders up on the deck that morning…

But an Aries unit had buzzed them. Someone had to have seen!

"Your behavior in the presence of your brother leads me to believe that there are other reasons for your enrollment at this facility than the rest of the cadets. The rest of the cadets, perhaps, but not my foster brother."

Here was this conversation again. Was Treize making some sort of a point?

She dared to turn her eyes to regard Treize's expression, but she found it unreadable. His eyes were far away from where they were truly standing, and his expression seemed fixed in one rife with sentimentality… or perhaps nostalgia. Lucrezia had seen that expression on his face before… in the limousine bringing them back from the transport.

Was the point Treize was making supposed to be about Zechs, or about herself… or did it have nothing whatsoever to do with the two of them? Was it something about someone that Treize remembered?

"A soldier cannot half-heartedly chose their path," Treize said. "Your friend Savoy will be leaving the Academy, much to everyone's disappointment, I am sure."

There was sarcasm in Treize's tone as he said it. Lucrezia… did not know how she truly felt about that particular turn of attendance. Savoy… was oftentimes unhelpful to her, more than that he was a countryman. They spoke the same language, or they could… and at times, when she had not expected it, he had been helpful or… just comforting. Smaller things than what she recalled of others, but…

The knowledge of his dismissal, as she was sure his withdrawal was a move to forego, made what good aspects of him she knew him to have much more poignant to her memory. Having known Antoni had a hand in placing Savoy at the Academy, it seemed… almost… as though he had been a suitor to her, in some manner. The dismissal was, then, more deeply to be considered than otherwise.

Giustino Savoy…

Was it Antoni dismissing him? Was it Savoy's withdrawal? Or was Treize having him removed? Whose hand was at work…?

"If you wish to tell him anything, you should say it this evening. He will be gone before the Aeries assessments tomorrow."

She did not think such a thing mattered… she had thought that revenge and duty alone filled her. Lucrezia had believed, or tried to believe, that such things were beneath her noticing… aside from her purpose. Affairs of the heart… the interlude with Zechs on the beach… they were distractions with no purpose to them.

Lucrezia snapped a salute to Treize.

It seemed her heart could be full of the one thing without being distracted from the other.

* * *

**AC 192, August 5; 1800  
**Mess Hall  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Noin rejoined the unit for the midday meal, but she was quiet throughout it, and throughout the rest of the day. She was thinking, Zechs observed, about something that did not warrant large amounts of conversation. He wondered what it could be, but he had not been able to take the time to find her alone to ask her.

After dinner seemed to be the only time open to him to do so. He would have to catch her before they both felt the draw of their studies… though perhaps… this evening should be spent in rest before the morning's assessment. Through the lenses of his mask, he watched her across the table from where he was sitting. She was a few chairs over, having chosen to sit between two cadets Zechs himself did not know. The names on their jackets said Rufkhar and Doxsey.

Stangel sat beside Zechs himself, and the two were making moderate small talk… becoming better friends. Savoy sat on the other side of Zechs, across from Lucrezia. After being chastised for his outburst this morning, he, too, had been silent.

"You really aren't worried about tomorrow's assessment at all?" Stangel asked, looking towards Zechs with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Either I am adequately prepared for the assessment, or I am not. If the training has been sufficient, and I have paid proper attention to my instruction, there is no cause for alarm," Zechs said, setting his flatware across the top of his plate. The meal wasn't exciting. The mess hall food rarely was.

It simply reminded him why he appreciated the food whenever he was anywhere else. Military food was… unappetizing.

Savoy stood from his place, having similarly placed his flatware nearly ten minutes prior, and lifted his tray. Lucrezia was quick to follow. This caused Zechs to tilt his head slightly. It was an unaccustomed reaction on her part, to move to follow Savoy.

And his mask was not designed to catch someone's eye in, unless it was with the glare of light from it. He pressed his lips together, pondering that move as Lucrezia followed Savoy towards the tray return. "Lady Lu strikes again," a voice from across the table said.

Zechs returned his attention to the conversation at hand. Did one of the cadets notice the change of his expression? It was Doxsey who was speaking.

"Who'd she get this time?" Stangel asked with a conspiratorial grin on his lips.

Even being Lucrezia's friend, it seemed, did not exempt him from the uncharitable conversation about her. Zechs arched a brow that none of his peers could see. Doxsey thumbed over at Rufkahr, and the young man in question punched Doxsey in the arm.

"Now now, there are certainly worse examples of eye candy on base," Doxsey said in his own defense, rubbing his arm gently. "Lady Lu is quite accomplished… and very attractive, if you ask me."

"Did he?" Zechs asked.

The group that was talking all turned to look at Zechs with confused looks on their faces. Doxsey started to speak, but Stangel picked up on the point that Zechs was making. "Zechs has a point," he said with a guilty look at his plate, rubbing the back of his neck. "Noin's a good cadet, and a first rate pilot."

"She can be that and still be attractive." Rufkahr spoke.

Zechs pressed his lips together to keep from commenting about this. Despite what he'd said to Stangel, he was just as concerned as the rest of the unit about his performance in the morning. He was also tense… Lucrezia hadn't said a word to him since… almost since the previous assessment. He'd been taking it out on the simulators… but it wasn't necessarily the right way to go about training.

"Do you respect her as a comrade?" Zechs asked.

The voice that came out of his mouth was surprisingly cold, even to his own ears. It sounded dangerous…

Rufkahr turned in his direction, perhaps trying to look intimidating. Whatever look he attempted, it failed. It bounced off of Zechs as though there were mirrors hanging around his head, rather than a helmet on top of it.

"Of course," Rufkahr replied.

"Then admire someone else."

Zechs pushed his chair back and stood in a single, fluid motion. He collected his tray and slid the chair back under the table with his foot. The motion of it was so sharp that the wooden chair back made a snapping noise as it made contact with the table. He carried his tray to the tray return and headed back towards the barracks, not bothering to even try to overhear what was said in the wake of his departure.

The sun was going down, or had gone down and left the dusky twilight in its wake, he couldn't be entirely sure. He headed down the path to the barracks, and was surprised to find that the only two occupants of it were Savoy and Lucrezia, when he arrived. A frown cut the corners of his lips into his cheek as he saw them, and he was not entirely sure why.

From the doorway, he could see that something was being said… perhaps something important, between the two of them. And he felt… jealousy? Anger? An emotion was all he could say for certain. It flared up in his chest, and for a moment, he wanted to move forward and strike Savoy. And then, after that moment had passed on its way, he felt detachment settle into its place.

Lucrezia was standing near the window, saying nothing. Savoy was closing his dufflebag. Whatever had been said… whatever had happened, was over. Savoy shouldered his bag and headed for the door.

It was only then that he noticed Zechs had entered the barrack.

A smile of grudging respect crossed his features, and he dipped his head slightly to the helmeted blond. As he stepped past Zechs, he murmured, "Look after her."

The emotion, whichever it was, flared up in him again, and Zechs balled his hands into fists at his sides. This was irrational. This was stupid. Zechs chanted the two phrases in his head. He did not want this to happen.

The noise of the closing door brought Lucrezia's attention back to the present, it seemed, and she turned to look, finding Zechs in the doorway. "Zechs," she said softly, sounding surprised.

He stood still in the doorway, unsure whether he wanted to speak to her or not.

She did not give him a choice, crossing the room to him. She was silent for a moment before she reached out and put a hand on his arm.

What was this? He thought, pulling back. No communication and now…?

"I'm sorry," she said softly, gripping the sleeve of his duty jacket, not letting him pull back. "I should have… it wasn't right… not speaking to you like that."

"You're right," he said. His voice sounded cold again.

"Savoy's leaving," she said, and he thought perhaps his tone had kept her from saying something more personal. "Treize told me this afternoon, and I… wanted to tell him goodbye."

"Alone in the barracks?"

Lucrezia's eyes flashed at him when he said that, and she let go of the grip she had on his jacket. Something told him he should stop, but whatever emotion was flaring up in his chest prodded him more firmly to continue.

"Other cadets have withdrawn… did you meet them like this as well?"

He wasn't really looking at her, which was why he didn't see the shift in her shoulders as she punched him in the face. The force of her blow snapped his head to one side, and nearly knocked the helmet from his head. He took half a step backwards, trying to keep it on. His cheekbone smarted, and it felt like his eye was loose in the socket.

The emotion flaring in his chest died as soon as he brought his eyes to rest on her. Chest heaving angrily, there was a hurt look on her face. She didn't give him a chance to respond, once she knew their eyes had met, she pushed past him, heading out of the barracks.

Suddenly, Zechs felt horrible.


	22. 4:6

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thanks to everyone for their reviews. I really like hearing everyone's comments. I've got a couple reader-response questions… would anyone answer them if I did a forum post about it?

* * *

**AC 192, August 6; 0600  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Mobile Suit Maintenance Hangar  
Northwestern Tanzania

The Aeries assessment was different from the Leo assessment. Because of the similarities between the electrical systems with the Taurus units, the cadets were required to do the entire pre-flight inspection on the unit before being allowed to enter into the cockpit. Lucrezia arrived first, having the first scheduled assessment, and reported to the hangar crew chief.

For the purposes of the assessment, there was a secondary check by the maintenance crews, but neither Lucrezia nor the crew found anything out of the ordinary. By 0700 she was in the locker room, changing into her flight fatigues, and by 0730 she was mounting the unit to enter the cockpit. The deck chief saluted her as she strapped in. "Try to remember your fatigue jacket this time, Cadet," he said with a wink and a smile.

A wan smile greeted him in response as the cockpit closed, blocking his view.

Lucrezia was not in a humor to indulge in pleasantries with anyone.

Flipping the switches, Lucrezia fixed the goggles over her eyes and began the pilot pre-flight sequence she had memorized dutifully from the manuals, simulators, and previous flight tests. Unlike the manuals advised, she turned on the ventilation to the cockpit first. It kept her from feeling the press of the screens and the size of the compartment.

The whir of the fans circulating the air calmed her, and she breathed in a few lung-fulls of air before she began flipping the other switches to start up the rest of the systems.

The noise of the fans changed almost instantly, the clean air flooding in turning to smoke, and there was a loud noise that blocked out the rest of the sound. She experienced the curious sensation of vertigo for a moment before the smoke overwhelmed her and she was swallowed by a painful, burning darkness.

* * *

Zechs had just arrived to do his maintenance pre-flight check when Lucrezia's cockpit sealed itself. The instructors were mounting the stairs to the observation deck as he collected his clipboard from the crew chief and headed towards his unit when the smooth mechanical noises coming from the active Aeries unit turned clunky and dangerous. He paused, halfway to his Aeries, when he staggered on his feet as some part of the active unit exploded.

That's when it stopped being just an 'active unit'… Lucrezia was in there!

Tossing the clipboard aside as the unit tottered and began falling backwards, Zechs felt that strange emotion grip his chest painfully. The words he'd said the night before were abominable. If they were the last ones she heard from him…

The Aeries unit crashed backwards into the wall of the hangar. A loud noise of protest came from the metal support beam that the unit had collided with. The deck crews snapped to attention, running forward with fire suppression equipment. There were shouts of orders barked out among them… but Zechs was the only one of them moving for the cockpit.

Scrambling up the hot metal, he got onto a somewhat precarious perch in range of the manual release for the cockpit. The fire had blasted over the surface, which meant the metal handle would be hot, but not damage. He whistled, loudly, to the nearest deck hand, and one of the cold blowers was turned on the scorched metal. Zechs jerked off his fatigue jacket and wrapped it around his hand, just in case, before he gripped the release mechanism and tore it loose from its position.

The release was harder than he had imagined, and he felt the muscles of his arm straining with the effort, and the heat of the release pull through his jacket, but then there was the satisfying hiss of air as the cockpit de-pressurized.

It seemed to take forever, but then Zechs realized it was smoke flooding out of the cockpit. Cursing, he scrambled up a few steps and ducked as much into the cockpit as he could, hands groping in the foggy air for her. He first came in contact with her bowed head, finding her hair. From there he reached in further to unbuckle her from the harness.

He wasn't thinking rationally when he dragged her out, and almost sent the two of them careening off the perch he had on the cockpit hatch.

Others were thinking more clearly, however, and there was a ladder unit waiting for him to step onto. He did so, wavering in his steps slightly as he made his way down the stair unit, only to have her taken from his grip at the bottom and put onto a gurney that had come from somewhere.

He saw no reason that he should feel dizzy, but he did.

Gripping the shoulder of the nearest person, he swayed slightly on his feet.

Then a firm hand pushed him down onto a gurney as well, and someone put an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. Through watery eyes, he could see Treize standing over the gurney he was being strapped too… and beyond him… a familiar figure…

Barone Antonino?

Zechs couldn't quite make it out, and once his eyes started to focus properly, the gurney was being pushed away from the crashed unit. The groans of the metal overhead were loud in his ears as the morning sunshine burned into his eyes when the gurney left the hangar.


	23. 4:7

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thanks to everyone for their reviews. My computer screen had to go in to be fixed on the laptop, so I haven't had it for a while. I'm posting today as requested by plum carp. Good luck on your finals. It's that time of year. Holidays are also coming up, which can be stressful for some people. I hope this chapter is as enjoyable as the others.

* * *

**AC 192, August 6, 1200  
**Lake Victoria Medical Center  
Northwestern Tanzania

Treize stood outside the observation room glass, regarding the young woman lying within. She was pale, but then she was always pale. Her complexion was patchy, red marks that were indiscernible between rash and burn on her visible skin. It was most likely a burn from the heat of the smoke that had filtered into the cockpit.

For Zechs, vomiting had been induced as soon as he had reached the infirmary. His foster brother was unhappy, but conscious.

For Lucrezia, there had been no such option.

The burns were being treated to put her in a more comfortable state, and the smoke inhalation was being treated by re-oxygenating her. The last of the preparations to the hyperbolic chamber were being finished, and he watched the nurses transfer Lucrezia onto the padded tray that would slide into the chamber.

Treize heard the boot falls, but didn't turn his head. Zechs came up beside him wordlessly.

"Shouldn't you be on the oxygen tank?" Treize asked.

Zechs did not reply.

"She will make a full recovery, the doctors say. Apparently she is not a stranger to smoke inhalation," Treize offered. "Or to danger or tragedy," he added.

Zechs stared silently at the glass. Treize could read nothing of his foster brother's reaction to the situation with the mask on his head. It was both a blessing and a curse. Previously, his foster brother had been easy to read. His expressions, while subdued, were visible, if one were observant enough. With the mask in place, given Zechs' mood, there was little to recommend his thoughts to the outside observer.

Zechs put a hand to the glass, pressing his fingertips to the cool of the surface between them, as the nurses pushed Lucrezia's reclining form into the chamber on the trolley. Treize nodded to himself, slightly, and turned to head down the hall.

"Has the matter been investigated?"

Treize stopped where he was walking. "Of course."

"She wouldn't have missed something that could cause that easily," Zechs said. His palm pushed against the glass, and he ground his teeth together. "If it was a faulty part, it had to be something to do with the compressed gas…"

"Mobile suits are seen as being less fragile than their pilots," Treize said. "Perhaps this will remind the cadets that nothing makes them invincible."

He could hear Zechs's growl as the blond young man's head snapped in his direction, but Treize did not give him the satisfaction of turning to meet the angry glare hidden from him. He had other things to worry about…

Antonino needed to be informed of his sister's accident.

* * *

**AC 192, August 6, 2000  
**Lake Victoria Medical Center  
Northwestern Tanzania

Bootfalls in the hallway announced the arrival of another into the observation room outside the hyperbolic chamber where Lucrezia was undergoing treatment. Zechs was seated in a chair that had been brought in for him by one of the duty nurses when it had become apparent that he was not going to allow himself to be removed. The doctor had even come into the waiting room to check his bandages, when the time had come.

He felt sick, but he knew that it had nothing to do with his injuries. There was pain from those, yes, but it was nothing insurmountable. He had suffered pain prior to that moment… but the emotion in his chest, the … jealousy that he had felt before… the protectiveness… it scorched him in a way that he could not handle in the same way he dealt with physical pain.

Zechs did not look up from where he was watching the enclosed oxygen unit through the safety glass as the new entrant to the room came to stand beside his chair.

"Sitting here will not speed her recovery."

Zechs tipped his head back a little to glance up at the Barone through the eyeholes of his mask. This man didn't like him… this man knew too much. Or at least he thought he did. "Sitting here isn't supposed to," Zechs said to him in reply.

"I do not wish for my sister to continue in the military," Antonino said.

Watching him as he was, staring up at the strong profile of the Barone, Zechs wondered how much strength it took for Lucrezia to stand up to his disapproval. He appeared wholly unforgiving and closed off. Just like Treize.

"Now that Savoy has left, I imagine you don't see a reason for her to be here," Zechs replied. "No one to marry her off to."

"Perhaps… Savoy was a bit hasty on my part." Antonino's voice softened as he spoke. "Would you want your sister to join the military?"

Zechs favored Antonino with a confused look. The man had connected his face with his bloodline, but could the Barone know about Relena? If he did… it made the man more dangerous than his quick wit and connections already made him. Relena was not to be involved in any of this. Relena was supposed to be safe.

"If your sister still lived," Antonino said, his voice hardening in response to Zechs's stunned silence, "is this what you would want her to be doing with her life?"

Dangerous, Zechs conceded to himself, and either he was covering himself from too much exposure, or he was without knowledge of Relena. "If I had a sister," Zechs said carefully, "she would not be doing this if I could help it, no. But if it bothers you so much, you should do something about preventing it."

Antonino laughed at that, a warm, rich sound that Zechs had not expected from the serious faced Italian. It surprised him. Why was it that this family was constantly surprising him? The barone tucked his dark hair behind on ear and smiled. Zechs could see it reflected in the observation window. The man did not turn towards him.

"Your sister would not be like Luc, then," Antonino said, shaking his head.

Zechs did not feel comfortable, despite the man's ease of address with him. Somehow it didn't seem… quite right to be on such easy terms with him.

"I disapprove of you, normally," Antonino said. Oh yeah, that was why this wasn't feeling right. At least the Barone was being direct about it. "I was informed… about how quickly you reacted when the malfunction of the equipment occurred."

Ah, that would have to be it.

"While my disapproval stands, it is for… different reasons than it was initially. Your foster brother does not have the greatest reputation with women. Despite what I know of your family, I could not be sure that such attitudes were not adopted with your new association."

"Are you sufficiently impressed by my lack of Treize's tendencies?" Zechs asked in a short tone. He did not like this line of conversation, or of questioning.

"I have become sufficiently impressed by your concern for her, I remain undecided in regards to the rest of that."

"I see," Zechs said. He stood. "So what is it that you disapprove of now?"

"I should think that would be of little consequence to one such as yourself," Antonino said. "And my disapproval is not fixed. I require further observation." The Barone paused, looking at his sister in the hyperbolic chamber. Something flickered in his eyes and across his visage that made Zechs wonder what it felt like to see his sister in such a situation.

He had been able to prevent something similar happening to his sister.

Zechs did not feel right standing there. He felt like he was intruding. He wanted to go, but something would not let him leave so easily… there was something hanging in the air, unsaid between them.

"I do… want to thank you," Antonino said. Turning, Zechs looked at the man's profile. "You did your best to protect Lucrezia, and I am grateful."

"You are welcome, but I did it for her."

"And not for me, I reasoned as much." Antonino's lips curved in a small smile. "However, I am still grateful," he said. He turned to look at Zechs. "The helmet seems to suit you…" he turned to look at the door as a cart went by them. "And knowing you two are in the same unit… I will delay removing Lucrezia from the Academy."

"Delay?"

"She is very committed to her choices," Antonino said absently.

A nurse pushed the door open.

"As am I," Zechs replied.

The nurse frowned sternly at Zechs. "Cadet, you really _do_ have to come to your room, Cadet Noin won't be out until at least the morning. You can come back then."

Zechs frowned, but Antonino nodded to the woman. "Look after yourself, Zechs," Antonino said. "I am here."

The nurse took Zechs by the arm, ushering him out of the room. Giving a last look back, Zechs fixed his blue eyes on the Barone, trying to peace together whether or not he had seen him in the hangar. Was the Barone truly going to send Lucrezia away from the academy? Could he really do something like that?


	24. 4:8

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

_A/N: Thanks to everyone for their reviews, as always. Computer screen fixed, several hundred dollars in the hole, but it's my quality of living that perseveres. Happily inking chapter 3 of the webcomic, I looked up and saw a sketch of Lu that reminded me I hadn't updated this in a while. My sincerest apologies, as for the grammar oversight in chapter 23, having reread it, the reviewer was right when they said there was a fault in that line of dialogue. The line __should have read, "She wouldn't easily have missed something that could cause a failure like that." Or something. It's pretty dern close to that, anywho. Happy Belated Christmas. Happy Early New Year, and all the holidays in between and outside of those religions. Please enjoy._

*

**AC 192, August 7; 0415**  
Lake Victoria Medical Center  
Northwestern Tanzania

The dive was complete. The air pressure was being vented out of the unit, and her eyes were open, but it seemed very surreal from where she lay. Consciousness was hazy at best. She could breathe, somewhat, but it was labored… shallow. Each breath was different, each a challenge. She did not want to think about what might have happened. She did not like to think about the size of the shell she was closed into. It was difficult to keep her thoughts straight, and her whole body felt heavy.

Things sounded a little distant. Turning her head seemed a chore, but when she did, she could see the nurses as they moved about the room. Their voices sounded like murmurs. Swallowing repeatedly, she popped her ears from the pressure changes.

Her vision swam on occasion, and as she was helped, slowly, to sit up on the pad, she could feel a cough threatening. That wouldn't do. She was going to space, to train in the Taurus units. She had to…

"It is good to see I was alerted for such a minor incident."

Tipping her head to the other side, Lucrezia made out the angry stance of her brother. She tried to moisten her lips, to bring some wetness to her tongue, but it would not come.

"Sarcasm, sister," Antoni said. He came closer, and she was surprised to find his arms embrace her.

"Sir, please," the nurses protested. "We need to move the cadet to her observation room. We allowed you in only because you are family, so don't get in the way."

"I suggest you reevaluate your words. I am her only family, and I will not tolerate insubordination from you." Antoni did not let her go. She lifted her arms in response. His arms were strong, and she felt sleepy, suddenly. The fabric of his jacket was stiff and rough, but… She felt safe enough to be drowsy. Her head tipped forward onto her shoulder and she fell asleep with her fingers gripping his jacket tightly.

*

Watching from the darkened observation room, Zechs knew she couldn't see him. In the dark, even with his pale skin and hair, he was a shadow. In the observation room without its usual lights, he was nothing more than another dull fixture leaning against the wall stationed between a small table and one of the uncomfortable seats. Barely a glint of the ambient light illuminated the bright metal of his helmet. The way she turned wide eyes around the room, he knew she was not seeing everything in her presence, let alone him on the other side of the glass. He tried to imagine what it was that she was saying to her brother… what a normal conversation between siblings must be like. He found that he couldn't.

He had never had a normal conversation with Relena, at least… not that he could recall. He had no reference. She was a child when they left home, barely old enough to do more than play games with.

Leaning against the wall opposite the window, Zechs wondered what the last time that Antonino had spent time with his sister was, before what happened in the Valle. If it was comfortable as the one that he was watching between the two of them… if it was caring in the manner of the embrace that he watched the siblings share through the glass… Somehow, Zechs doubted that. He did not think that close siblings treated one another as Lucrezia acted as thought Antonino treated her. He could not be sure on the level of siblings, but he knew enough of relationships between men and women that he could tell she was not well pleased with the situation. So the relationship was strained, then, or perhaps distant. They had a great age difference between the two of them. If that was the relationship between the two of them before the event that happened, then the tragedy of the Noin family would seem to have awakened some sense of brotherly duty in the older Baronet that was likely absent prior to it. Zechs's chin dipped towards the floor, and he wondered if that was what he was like to Relena.

Cold and distant.

Was he just another uncaring sibling that discarded his sister to the wind until something happened to change that? He frowned, lips pressing together to make a thin line. No. He would not be like that. There was more learning in his childhood than there was in Antonino's, in that regard. Zechs was sure of it.

That had to be part of the reason why Milliardo would not rest in peace and leave Zechs to deal with the present.

The door opened.

It took a moment before Zechs lifted his head, turning it enough to regard whoever had entered the observation room. He was surprised to find that it was Treize. Surely his foster brother had more important matters to attend…

The tall young man cut an imposing figure in silhouette. The light that passed into the room around him and through the open door lit Zechs's standing figure, causing a flash of light to enter the room through the glass of the observation window.

"Come with me," Treize said.

Wordlessly, Zechs straightened up from the wall, annoyed at being disturbed, and followed his foster brother from the room.

*

The bright light caught the attention of Lucrezia's bleary eyes, and she blinked them, looking in the direction of the glass. "Wh-" she began to ask, but stopped herself. That sort of a flare she'd seen before. There was nothing like it that wasn't _it_. Zechs's helmet shined in a way that little else she had beheld up close did. And she didn't want to talk to Zechs right then. She had nothing to say to him.

Antonino regarded his sister, but offered no comment as he released her to the care of the nurses. He followed her gurney as it headed out of the room and down the hallway. The Italian barone thought he felt eyes on him. It was as he turned to follow it that he noticed, from the corner of his eye, Zechs being lead in the opposite direction. A step behind Treize.

It appeared as thought Zechs noticed him as well. The pale face, Antonino thought, must regard him through the mask. Antonino's eyes lingered. He paused in following the gurney. Zechs's chin was tilted to look over his shoulder. The fall of the young man's blond hair curved in a way that suggested some comment or reaction by the turn of it. It looked, the barone decided in the short moment he spent watching, to be calculating.

And then the moment passed. Antonino began to follow the gurney, but from the corner of his eye, again… He could _swear_ the eyeholes of Zechs's mask caught light in a way that suggested Zechs was looking directly at _him_ over his shoulder. Well. A tilt of Antonino's lips suggested disregard without quite being a smile or a frown. He ignored Treize and his follower, and turned back after his sister's gurney before he allowed the expression to solidify into a frown.

* * *

**AC 192, August 9; 0800  
**Lake Victoria Medical Center  
Physical Therapy Room  
Northwestern Tanzania

The doctors said as soon as she felt ready to try for it, she was allowed to exercise. Her lungs would force her to stop if her stubbornness could not be prevailed upon, they said to her instructors. Her brother had departed for the city the night before. Thankfully, it seemed that none of the instructors were in the wing before his departure.

There was something immensely satisfying about running, Lucrezia thought to herself. The treadmill beneath her feet was steady and prevented the hazards of outdoor running – including air quality – from affecting the beginning of her rehabilitation. Left right, left right, left right. She could feel the burn in her chest, but she ignored it.

The only way out… the only way up to space, was to work through the burning feeling in her chest.

Left right. Left right. Left -

It was Colonel Bernd who had come to tell her the unfortunate news.

She closed her eyes and recalled his visit the previous afternoon…

Left right left right. Left -

*

Reclining in her bed, by doctor's orders, Lucrezia was unwilling to admit that she felt tired. The door opened, and the Commandant of Cadets entered. She sat up straight and snapped a salute to him. He waved her to ease, and she settled back against the propped up pillows.

"I must admit, given the particulars of the accident, I am surprised to see you looking quite so lively, Cadet," the older man said. His voice was kind, but rather than being calmed, she felt patronized by it.

"Smoke isn't enough to truly best me, sir," she said. It was one of the few personal conversations she had ever had with the man. Private address, yes, as one of the top cadets at the Academy, she was used to his presence, but not conversing with him. A conversation had two sides, and previously she had not been encouraged to participate.

"May your recovery continue as fortunately as it has begun," the Commandant said. He paused, and the words hung in the air between them. She could hear her brother's caution to the man, what reassurances he might have given the Commandant about her training having been a passing fancy or a childish indulgence on his part.

The belittled feelings of patronizing continued. They sparked an angry fire in her.

"However?" Lucrezia asked in a respectful tone, staring at the Commandant, who stared out the window in turn.

The older man smiled a little, something true and almost bitterly frank. "However as is the case in the military, the Academy's training cannot be held for one cadet. Captain Kushrenada has rescheduled the assessment for three weeks from now. At the beginning of September the chosen cadets depart for the launch site, and the space training exercises begin shortly thereafter."

Her whole chest constricted at hearing those words. They would be going… without her. She could see through his words to what he meant.

"The doctors inform me that recovery in that period of time is not impossible," the commandant said. He turned to look at her. "However space worthiness and recovery are not one and the same. There are no special dispensations when it comes to the Captain's training, as you know. If you are fit, you will be included, otherwise, you will remain here."

*

Not that she blamed the Commandant. Not that she had any right to blame Treize. The man had not made an appearance to her since the accident, and when her brother had been asked, she was informed that the Captain was personally overseeing the investigation of the malfunction of the Aries unit she had been in.

It was stupid.

LEFT right, left right, left RIGHT. LEFT-

The thud of her feet on the treadmill drown out the beating of her heart, the rush of air through her nostrils. There was nothing but the running.

This was her fault, and hers alone. No one else should be blamed for it.

Something… she had missed something.

LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT. LEFT RIGHT, LEFT-

Her mind traced back over the patterns of the sheet she had been inspecting. The carefully planned out mechanical evaluation. What hadn't it covered? What?

Stone crept into her muscles.

The air intake system. Before the explosion, there had been some malfunction in the life support system, at least the oxygen returns. She knew, the vents had been on, the air had been circulating, and then it had become smoke. Did someone know her routine? Or was she saved because of that?

LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT, left RIGHT. Left-

Like fingers, the stone pressed its way from her muscles to her joints.

Or was the ventilation system secondary to what caused the explosion? Had it been the oxygen? Or was it a fuel cell? The bars… She pressed her eyes together, trying to remember the configuration of the displays. It came to mind easily.

RIGHT left. RIGHT LEFT. RIGHT LEFT RIGHT. Left-

Now what was it reading before the smoke?

The stone seized her chest, and she stumbled a step. The rhythm of her stride was not altered, it was broken.

Left right, LEFT RIGHT, left… left-

The step took long enough to recover from that she was seated at the end of the treadmill before she could come back to herself. The bars… what were the displays like?

She ignored the heaving of her chest… the burning, and leaned back to take in fresh air, only dimly aware of the sweat on her tank top and workout clothes. It didn't matter. Not at all.

What were they like?

The answer seemed to laugh at her from the far side of a fogbank in her memory. The treadmill whirred to a stop in front of her. She frowned, scowled angrily at it. What had it said?

She turned over and started doing pushups.

*

_And thus we end Chapter Four._


	25. 5:1

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Thus begins chapter 5!! I'm pretty psyched to get into this part of the story. I really enjoyed writing it. I'm heading to a convention at the end of February down in Orlando, and though I'm not going for fanfic writing, I'm always happy to talk about it, so if anyone's going to MegaCon, hit me up. I'll be at Orange 10.

*

**AC 192, August 17; 2215  
**Suite 310, Thalia Hotel  
Prague

A firm hand shoved at Treize, and the ginger haired captain fell back against the couch. He could smell the grappa on Antonino's breath. The man had indulged himself once they'd left their company. It was unlike him. Drinking had always seemed beneath the barone, to Treize, but here he was, late at night with the smell of it thick on his breath. How long since this was a common occurrence? Since the beginning of the month… since his sister's accident, the Barone had been sullen and withdrawn when in private.

Perhaps, thought Treize, he would hear out of it this evening.

"Something else on your mind, Anto?" Treize asked, adjusting his collar at the rough shove he'd received from the older man. Somewhat unusual, they were rarely rough with one another like that.

"You have not said what the outcome of the investigation is," Antonino replied, turning his back on Treize and heading back for the tray that the room service had been helpful enough to bring to them. The noise of the pouring liquid was faint, but in the empty room, it filled the space.

"You haven't said what the outcome of your stay in Prague has been, or why you called me here so urgently."

The dark haired older man sipped from his glass and did not comment.

Treize watched his friend. His eyes followed the line of his arm, the gap between the angle of it and the man's chin. This was not something he wanted to discuss with Antonino. This wasn't the purpose of his visit… or at least it had not been the purpose of Treize's visit. "I'm going to space at the end of the month. X-18999."

"If you would fill me in on the details of the investigation…" Antonino trailed off, as though he anticipated the response he would get. After again refilling his glass, he headed from the tray of room service to stand before one of the tall windows in the room. Setting his glass on the sill through the curtain, he drew the curtains open to reveal the evening streets of Prague beyond the glass.

"It's military, Anto," Treize said. "You told me that it tired you to hear the particulars of my daily operation, provided I had the proper route to reach my goal. Your sister should not be influencing your opinions so much."

Antonino took off his gloves and tossed them onto the table near the window. He lifted a bare hand to his temple. Treize's eyes followed the motion of the Barone's hand as it brushed the skin on the side of his face, and Treize sighed inwardly. This… doting brother thing was somewhat foreign to his image of the dark haired man.

"Anto," he tried, voice appeasing. "The technicians are almost positive it was a manufacturing error in one of the combustion units in the fuel tank. The heat from the ignition sequence melted the casing on the air circulation tubing which emits a gas-"

"You may spare me the official report, Treize," Antonino said. "If I wanted that, I could read the apology card the commandant sent to my secretary."

Treize rose from his seat on the couch. "Then what do you want, Anto?" he asked, crossing to stand beside him at the window.

"The truth," came the soft reply.

Standing beside one another, their shoulders almost touching, Treize shook his head a little and looked down. "You are not an easy man to please, Anto," he spoke in a gentle voice. "When I have the truth, you will have it of me."

A soft murmur responded to that, perhaps acceptance.

Treize knew that his words were working. Antonino was relaxing, perhaps despite himself, perhaps because of his companion at the window's edge. It was hard for Treize to pinpoint exactly how he knew the older man was relaxing. Perhaps it was something physical, or perhaps it was the tone of his voice as he spoke in Italian.

"What would you like until then?"

"Rest without fear," Antonino said.

"I can offer you part of that," Treize replied, putting a hand onto the Barone's shoulder. "But each man's fear must be dealt with in the depths of his own heart."

"You speak poetry or nonsense," Antonino replied with a shake of his head. "And I'm too drunk to tell which. Get out of my way, Treize, I need a bath."

* * *

**AC 192, August 23; 1340  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

Postponed. Delayed. Lucrezia was not in classes with the other cadets. She was not back on base. He could not see her. And it was driving Zechs to distraction.

Treize did not believe that the accident warranted special attention from the entire Corps of Cadets. Instead, he assigned other work. Strategy, intelligence, field medicine. Arms practice. Even with the simulators to keep him occupied outside of classes, Zechs felt idle. He found that he _hated _to feel idle.

It was as he paced the halls of the barrack that he knew what he wanted.

He wanted a sword.

Perhaps no one remaining would understand his desire. To lose himself in the thrust and parry of fencing… perhaps the other students had never done it. Like hand to hand combat, the cadets all drilled with swords, practiced fencing… but it wasn't the same as the way he felt when he held one. It couldn't be the same for them.

Since there was no one to practice with, he contented himself with returning to the library. The afternoon sun hung overhead, mild in the south African sky. It made the inside of his helmet warm, and his temples sweated against the restriction of the padding. A reassuring annoyance, it gave Zechs something to focus on.

Several other cadets drifted by. The middle of the day was open time, and the cadets took advantage of it in different ways. Some did light exercise so they could be out in the fresh air instead of studying… basketball, soccer. Others, like Zechs, went to the library to work on assignments. Some rested.

The ones resting, Zechs thought, were the ones who had the least likelihood of passing on to become a member of the Specials.

He kept his eyes trained on his goal, despite the discomfort and the heat. He was focused until he saw the car down at the sally port. From the back of it climbed several figures, one of which was smaller than the others.

He could not call Lucrezia tall. It was not one of her attributes that he could praise. She was beautiful, her eyes were lively, her skin was smooth despite what puberty tried to do to it… but she was not tall. Her shoulders were not horribly broad… But he could tell who she was in a crowd from several hundred feet, so picking her out of a group of three was easily done. He stopped, standing still, and stared at her as she left the two men behind and headed up the walkway in the direction of the barracks.

* * *

Lucrezia paused when she saw Zechs standing staring at her. Looking to the side, she tried to figure a better way back to the barracks, but a part of her… an angry part, wanted to run into him.

They were ten feet apart, it wouldn't be impossible.

And Zechs was staring. She started to speak, but he beat her to that. "It is good to see you back on your feet, Lucrezia."

Easy… familiar… it pissed her off. After what he'd said? "You of all people should know that sort of a thing isn't enough to keep me out of commission for long."

A small smile pulled at Zechs' lips. "You are correct."

"If you'll excuse me," she said, stepping in the direction of the barracks. No sense staying out in the open. If she started breathing heavily or showed a sign of weakness, everyone would see it. She didn't want that. Especially not with Zechs. For him to see… the thought almost made her angry enough to hyperventilate.

* * *

Zechs dipped his head. She was returned. It was enough. She walked on, and he headed in his own direction. The doors of the library opened and he welcomed the quiet. It was enough… to see her and know that she was well.

His chest hurt to think about it. He couldn't admit to Treize and certainly not Antonino why he'd done what he'd done in the hangar. He didn't consider himself to be a particularly heroic individual. There wasn't much special about his actions. He could fight, but he was a failure no matter how well he did that.

A child of his parents should not fight. A true son of Cinq…

He could almost shake his head. Apparently he was no true child of Cinq. Apparently he was not his father's son. He bore a different name than the one he was born with, he acted in a manner unfitting a member of his family.

Milliardo was dead and could have no claim on anyone.

But it seemed that Zechs had a heart as well.

The Baronessa had proved it to him. Whoever he was, she was able to get through, it seemed. It puzzled him. The stacks of books he stepped into had no answers to that question. He headed for the mobile suit manuals, wanting to do more reading on the Aeries units. The Taurus would be next, after the assessment, but he needed to know more about the unit that had exploded.

* * *

She was unpacking her bag when Stangel cleared his throat. Glancing up, she offered him a little bit of a smile. He smiled back, and moved over to give her a hug. It was unexpected. She hadn't realized he considered her that much of a friend that he would…

Men could be… surprising.

She smiled more fully and patted his back before pulling away from him. "So… I take it you missed me."

"Well with only Zechs really to talk to…" Stangel said with a shrug.

Her smile faded away, and she turned back to unpack her laundry from the bag that it sat waiting in. It was so wrinkled, she might as well send it back and have it cleaned again. How many weeks had it been sitting there waiting for her? Reminding her classmates that she was potentially out of commission for good?

Was it Treize's doing?

"Hey," Stangel said when she closed up on him again. "Don't get like that. Do you resent what he did for you? Being rescued from an exploding mobile suit doesn't make you any less of a soldier."

Freezing in place, Lucrezia stared at her hands.

Her shoulders trembled, and she could feel it. She could almost smell the smoke around her… the light from the displays burning through… _what did the meters read?_ And then blackness…

"As well as I can tell, he's been really worried about you. The two of you seemed to be friends, before. You're certainly in a class all to yourselves when it comes to marks and comprehension. Evenly matched at the assessment and-"

"He… saved me?" Lucrezia's voice was soft. She wasn't sure what to make of it. What she felt about that. After what he'd said the night before the accident… the incident… the explosion… Her brother had warned her that if she wasn't careful, the military men would think poorly of her, and he had asked her if that was what she wanted people to think of her as the last female member of their family.

It stung.

Stangel blinked and nodded. When she didn't reply, he said aloud, "Yes, h-he did."

So Zechs' words had hurt her, when he said what he said. But now… now to hear that _he_ had been the one who had pulled her out of the unit… "Tell me about it."

Peter shifted on his feet, and when Lucrezia turned to look at him, sitting on her bunk, she thought he looked very young under his mop of crew cut reddish hair. It made his skin look pale, and the way he looked withdrawn at the question drove home the difference between the bookish cadet and the rest of the unit.

"Stangel," she said, forcing his eyes to meet hers. "Tell me."


	26. 5:2

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**  
"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: Someday I'd like to not go somewhere and come back sick. Con people can be plague rats sometimes, seriously. Onwards!

* * *

**AC 192, August 23; 1900  
**Cadet Access Library  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

The doors opened, and Zechs pushed through them. He stretched a little, tipping his head back, and when he straightened up, there was a figure standing in front of him. Surprise of all surprises, it was Lucrezia. From the way she'd spoken outside, he was certain she was still angry with him. Through the glass of his helmet, Zechs watched her face.

Lucrezia's brows were furrowed, and her eyes were hard as she stared at him with something akin to a glare. Her lower lip hung slightly down from her upper one, and for a moment he was transfixed on them. He knew how those felt… knew the way she tasted…

She was breathing through her mouth, slow and methodically.

She didn't look happy.

Zechs paused in his regard of her. He'd been on the far side of her in sparring before. She could swing a punch as well, if not better, than the rest of the cadets. She stared for a long moment, and he had nothing to say. He was too unsure of her reaction to know what to say.

"You…" she started. Her voice trailed off. Her eyes changed from hard to uncertain. Her brows pressed closer together. Something… something was confusing her?

"Come with me," Zechs said, aware of how out in the open they were.

He turned and headed off towards the practice rooms. At the very least, he thought, he could get his itch for fencing out of his system. At the most… perhaps they could make up. It was unsettling, not being on good terms with her. More than anyone else, he wanted to be on good terms with her. He wanted to be…

It didn't really matter _what_ he wanted in that regard, he reminded himself. He pressed his lips together, glad she was walking a little too far behind him to notice it. She always seemed to notice changes in his expressions. The Barone was a forbidding presence in the back of Zechs' mind, as well as Treize… and whenever he let them fade away, he thought on little Relena. Innocent and kind, she had to be like that. She had always seemed like that.

The practice rooms were empty. The other students were heading to study hall or to the mess hall. When they arrived, Zechs turned to speak to Lucrezia… but as though she anticipated the move, she began to strip off her fatigue jacket to get into a practice suit for fencing. Shocked, Zechs quickly turned to a different locker and began to change as well.

He tried to keep his mind focused on something other than the fact that she was undressed in the same room as him. He tried to think of something else, to long for the sword as he had when he was missing her. That was it, he knew, as his mind pounced on the idea. An apology. He didn't _need_ to miss her if he apologized. It would be…

"Why fencing?" Lucrezia asked, pulling the practice suit up her arms.

Zechs made the mistake of glancing at her then, and lost his thoughts as he watched her over his shoulder. His eyes followed her hands as she fixed the collar of the outfit around her neck. Her pale hands were wearing gloves already and she reached for the face guard.

When he didn't reply, she turned to face him more fully, "Zechs?"

"I don't have to worry when I'm fencing," he said immediately, as if on command. He snapped his chin back towards the locker he stood in front of and finished fastening his own protective gear. He didn't offer more, but pulled his lengthening blond hair back and tied it off. He had learned in an earlier match against his foster brother how perilous it could be to let the locks go.

*

Lucrezia didn't respond to that. She wasn't entirely sure she knew what she ought to say to it. She paused long enough to allow Zechs to ready himself, and then turned to head towards the door to the practice room. She was surprised to find herself nearly in step with the blond cadet.

They found practice swords, and stepped out onto the padded floors where fencing bouts were normally found. "We should warm up," she said to break the silence.

Zechs contemplated the sword in his hands. She watched him do it, feeling foolish. Why was she there? She had an assessment to train for. There was work to do.

"No we shouldn't," Zechs said. He wasn't looking at her. She started to question, but he continued before the words left her throat. "There isn't any warm up in piloting."

"This isn't piloting, it's fencing," Lucrezia replied.

"They are similar," Zechs said.

"If you say so," she replied with a shake of her head. She lifted her hands and adjusted her face guard. "Either way, let's start."

Zechs turned his head towards her, and she took a small step back. Something was different… when he looked at her like that. She couldn't see his eyes, but she could tell that there was something different about the way that he was regarding her with just the tilt of his head. The overhead lighting glinted off the glass in the eye holes of his helmet.

"As you say," he replied.

Back and forth, Lucrezia thought as the two of them saluted with their swords. A game of cat and mouse. Why was the predator always changing on her? Earlier, when she'd stopped him outside of the library, she knew herself to be the attacker, but just then? In the quiet practice room with a sword in her hand, no matter how she felt about the sword, she worried about the man across from her. What was different about Zechs?

He watched her, silently, without much more movement than was necessary. She felt her pulse quickening as they moved near one another, swords pointed at the floor. Something shifted in the room between them, and Zechs began to attack.

Normally, fencing is practiced as straight-forward movements and sidesteps. That's what the sport is considered, it's what the points are based on. Lucrezia knew that. She also knew that the lunge Zechs began, coming close to her and lacking the usual balestra, had very little to do with the sport of fencing. So when he said… that it was like piloting…

She switched the motion of her response, returning his attack with a coulé in answer to his lunge. He caught the weight of her blade, and the two of them were between blades for a moment, close enough that neither the mesh of her face guard or the glass of his helmet kept their eyes apart.

Lucrezia could see his eyes, and she knew that what she had sensed before was true. This was not the Zechs she knew. This was not the young man with a gentle demeanor who had been helpful to her and jealous…

This was a warrior.

Both cadets pressed with their wielding hands and backed away from one another. Lucrezia took a step to the side, feeling his eyes follow her movements as she followed his. This was the Zechs who defeated his assessments rather than just scoring top marks at them. She'd read the files on him, how he did at the Czech facility… the incident over Tokyo Bay…

The noise of their practice swords clashing was the only noise in the room that surpassed their breathing. Zechs' beat was not an assault… it was an attack. She could see that, and she answered back with a bind forceful enough that the flex of her arm reminded her of the size difference. Strength alone would not win her this fight.

But neither would timidity.

She had to think… Two people seemed to be inside Zechs. It was something that she couldn't understand before this. The more she thought about it, the more obvious it became. The more she wondered about that, the less she concentrated on her movements. There was no disregarding Zechs. The fight was forefront in her mind, but there was a fire he fought with that she felt herself lacking, somehow. She had not felt unequal to Zechs before.

She knew she was not unequal to him at all.

A prise de fer swung Zechs' sword out of striking distance, and she snapped the foible across his chest. His blade answered back to the question with a cut to the side of her neck. Her displacement was quick, but not quick enough. The motion of his blade impacted with the side of her head guard, and her head was forced to the side. It stung… but no more than it must have stung when she snapped her blade across his chest.

These moves would earn them black cards in a bout, but the conversation was one they needed to have. Verbally they couldn't ask the same things, or give the same answers. Zechs needed to express his jealousy, and his anger at that jealousy. Lucrezia needed to respond with her outrage at his assumptions…

But beneath that there was the layer of comfort that they neither were certain of.

If comfort could be smooth and easy, like glass… it must also be as breakable. Neither cadet was old enough to think that there was any reason to let go of what angered them. Neither cadet knew if this was attraction or friendship…

As one they moved their blades in disengage, and both blades were spun from the fingers of their sword hands. Lucrezia was unsure what it meant. It wasn't settled. Nothing was settled. Her ear stung. She pulled off her mask, knowing her cheeks were flushed from the exertion, and lifted a hand up to it. Her lungs grasped the air that was offered them through the release of the mask greedily.

Zechs had worn no mask other than the metal one.

His cheeks, where she could see them beneath it, were flushed as well. He was breathing heavily, taking deep breaths, and he lifted a forearm to rub the sweat from his upper lip. She rubbed her ear with gentle fingers, hoping to take the sting away from it.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Violet eyes snapped up to look at Zechs. Lucrezia was surprised to hear that from his lips. She thought the fight was… a way of coming back to an even ground. She wasn't expecting… words.

"I was… … it made me angry," Zechs said.

His pause interested her, and she watched him for a long moment, offering nothing. He said nothing else, stepping over to his practice sword and bending to pick it up. It was all, apparently, that he had to say on the matter.

Lucrezia moved to retrieve her practice sword as well, watching him over her shoulder as he flexed his fingers and began to unstrap his hand. "I accept your apology," she said softly, straightening and turning her eyes to look out the window at the slim vegetation outside the practice hall. "And… I would like to… thank you… for saving my life."

Zechs turned to look at her. He wanted to sigh, thinking that was the only reason she was speaking to him again. "I would do it for anyone in a situation like that."

Her back tensed. Perhaps he didn't care to say things properly to her, perhaps…

Watching her, Zechs knew he couldn't leave the rest of his statement unsaid. "My heart nearly stopped when I realized what was happening," he said. "I almost… couldn't move."

Her fingers felt numb, and she dropped the helmet and the practice sword. His heart… What had he truly hesitated on saying when he said he was sorry? She continued to stare out the window, and she could see her reflection in the darkening sky. She hadn't realized the room was so dark. Were they practicing in the dark? Had they missed dinner?

She heard his footsteps as he crossed to her, she could almost feel him set down his sword. It took a little long, she thought, but he stepped up behind her, and put his hands on her shoulders. Her fingers trembled slightly as he did it, she was waiting for something… like this? She just knew that she wasn't angry with him for no reason.

Zechs' palms pressed onto the curve of her shoulders and his fingers wrapped around the meat of her arms. His hands felt strong and warm after the fight. Gently, he put a little pressure on her muscles, indicating that she should lean back. It took a long moment for her to decide before she leaned back against him. Another moment passed before it was comfortable for her to lean against him.


	27. 5:3

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

A/N: A short chapter. There's still more to come.

* * *

**AC 192 August 27; 1620  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Outdoor Track  
Northwestern Tanzania

Unlike the other cadets, who had PT only in the morning, Lucrezia had scheduled herself for a second bout of it. An hour and a half of cardio training in the afternoon. The cool sun overhead brought up a sweat without exhausting her, and the burning feeling in her lungs was starting to go away.

Three days until the assessment. She wasn't worried about her performance so much as she was worried about having a relapse into panic. There was no one she could tell about that. There was no one who would understand. She thought about telling Zechs, but… the idea of that was a little discomforting.

She had no one to talk to about it, so instead of talking, she ran. She jogged, she lifted weights when she felt like she had enough energy for it, and aside from that, she stewed. Finishing her laps early, she began a slower jog that she let languish into a walk. The rest of the academy seemed to be on hiatus while they waited for the assessment to determine their next assignment. A part of her felt bad, a very small part. The part that missed her horse and her father's lenient smile. A larger part of her, the part that resented what happened, that wanted revenge, was grateful for the opportunity and willing to take it as far as she could.

How far was that? Where would she find something to quench the fire that raged when she thought about what happened to her family? When she thought about how terrible it was that there were things… She felt her hands shaking, and she pressed her fingertips into her palms. She forced herself to breathe.

There was something that Anto had said, once. One of the few times when the two of them had gotten along without too much arguing… something he'd alluded to on the yacht in Lake Victoria… was it only a month ago? Yes, it was only in July that he'd mentioned it.

After he'd interrupted her with Zechs on the deck of the yacht, Lucrezia had thought her brother's anger would be alive for longer. Instead he'd taken her up to one of the upper decks, and though she was expecting the lecture she'd grown accustomed to hearing from Erme – behavior, decorum, modesty! – he said nothing. There were chairs there, next to a small pool. The whole area was empty. She still expected some angry outburst, and so when he released her arm, she drifted away.

It was Anto's soft voice that kept her from straying too far. "Di notte conta le stelle, non le ombre… [1]"

The phrase was arcaic. It was one way to say an old parable. Lucrezia turned to look at her brother, and found that he was looking up at the stars overhead, away from the fireworks. She looked up, and found that the speckling of them in the dark overhead was indeed worth staring at. Moreso than the fireworks, she thought in that instant.

Maybe she understood her brother better than she thought.

"Di giorno conta i sorrisi, non le lacrime[1]," she answered softly.

That stuck in her mind. Stuck there as firmly as the need to lash out at what had taken her life from her.

Lucrezia couldn't let herself think about the Aries test, she had to think about the Taurus examination. Focus on space, she told herself, focus on the stars.

Anything shorter than that was unacceptable.

Finishing her lap, she paused to stretch lightly, reaching down for her toes.

"You seem dedicated, at least."

Straightening and turning, Lucrezia regarded the speaker. Treize regarded her evenly from the shade of the bleachers that ringed the track. "I am serious about this, Captain, whether you believe it or not, sir." She headed towards the athletic facility in hopes of leaving the captain behind and taking a shower.

"You achieve top marks at everything, I don't doubt your sincerity or dedication to this position. I doubt your motives."

"Each individual is separately responsible for their own motives, or at least that's what my brother says to me. If my dedication is strong enough, the motives shouldn't be your concern."

"Perhaps not," Treize said. "But your brother worries about you, and so he undoubtedly says things that justify his allowing you to continue. The truth is, soldiers die. War kills."

Pausing, Lucrezia turned her eyes to regard the Captain. In the shade of the bleachers, as he got to his feet, he looked a little tired. Like he had when he was in the limousine on their return from the opera. "I've been through that already."

"To a point, I'm sure you have. But your experience of it, and his experience of it are different from a soldier's experience. He abandoned the self of his that was a victim. Don't give it back."

Her lips formed a questioning word, but the Captain did not allow her time to vocalize what she was obviously wondering. Treize turned and headed back towards the walk leading to the main buildings. She thought about replying anyway, but it was obvious that the captain had no desire to further the conversation. What he had to say had been said, and he required no input from her.

It was so much like Zechs, she thought.

She headed in to the showers, knowing that the PT class for the afternoon would be reporting to change soon. She didn't want to cross paths with them. She wanted to get to the simulator.

*

[1] Di notte conta le stelle, non le ombre – Count your nights by stars, not shadows.

[2] Di giorno conta i sorrisi, non le lacrime – Count your days by smiles, not tears.


	28. 5:4

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

* * *

**AC 192 August 28; 1945  
**Lake Victoria Specials Academy

Sitting in the mess hall, Zechs let his eyes unfocus. He hated the waiting more than anything else. Sitting across from Lucrezia was one of the few things keeping him from leaving the meal unfinished and departing the mess hall entirely. Since the incident the other cadets had started to look at the two of them differently. Not without reason. Since the incident in the hangar, Lucrezia had been bundled off to the infirmary, and once she returned, the two of them were often joining the group of cadets together. Somewhere along the line, the other cadets in the unit had become proud of Lucrezia. The older cadets were silent whenever the pair joined them, annoyed at Zechs and covetous of their star pilot that he seemed to be monopolizing.

The conversation at the table bored Zechs, but he let it intrude on his annoyed thoughts. "… three days until the assessment."

"The results will be the same. Noin's going to blast the rest of us out of the water."

Lucrezia was smiling a determined sort of smile over her glass of water. Tiberi shook his head with a little snort. "After what happened last time, I wouldn't be so confident."

"Then perhaps you lack the appropriate abilities to inspire confidence," Zechs said, eyes somewhat narrowed behind his mask. "Because everything else about you indicates jealousy rather than disbelief."

Noin's head turned to her usual companion across the table.

"Sticking up for your woman, I see, Marquise."

"She is not my woman, and does not require sticking up for. However, in the case of someone like you, I am happy to be of assistance to someone who deserves better treatment." His voice was low, and his annoyance was seeping out of his mind into his words. "Pick on someone you stand a better chance of besting."

There was silence at the table, and Novoa glared at Zechs.

Tiberi held up a hand to his second in command and regarded Zechs. "If you say so. I think you'll do nicely. She'll beat you the way she beat the rest of us, I'm sure. I'll hold the rest of my comments until then."

Chairs pushed away from the table. The unit commander and his staff left the table, and the younger cadets all fell silent. Lucrezia stared at Zechs across the table still, and after a moment, he returned his gaze to hers. She narrowed her eyes and went back to focus on eating her food.

He'd hear about that later. She might not say anything aloud, but he'd know. She'd flip him hard in PT, or smack him accidentally in the fencing ring.

But he'd know what she meant.

He'd brought it on himself, after all.

They finished their meals and left. It wasn't predetermined timing, they simply finished together. At least on his part. He couldn't speak for hers. It was free period for a time until lights out. Thankfully there was no way to get to the library, and the simulators were down.

On the path outside, Lucrezia stopped walking. Zechs, having figured the best thing for them was to return to the barracks and rest, stopped in surprise to regard her. "You never answered."

His brows lifted, unseen under his helmet.

She looked back at the mess hall and then reached over to take him by the wrist. He liked this about the baronessa. She was always direct with him. She always asked what she wanted to know, and was always discreet. Unlike Treize's women, who often called at the manor and made scenes in public.

Zechs was annoyed with himself in the same way he was annoyed by waiting. Lucrezia was _not_ his woman. She was a friend, she was someone who knew the look of his unmasked face, and she was…

The evening lights they passed by cast her figure in silhouette. Even in fatigues he could not help but remember how she had looked in the ball gown.

She was beautiful.

As though his contemplation of her was troublesome or too much, she tightened her grip on his wrist and dragged him forward. Uncertain, and lost in his thoughts, Zechs allowed her their direction at her own discretion without comment. Lucrezia lead them to a halt once they reached the cement lined aisle leading to the outdoor track. He waited as she slowly let go of his wrist. "What didn't I answer?"

"Why you started wearing that. What's so important you have to hide your face for?" She leaned against the concrete, head turned away from him, as though the words were difficult to utter. "I feel close to you, but I don't know you."

Zechs' eyes widened at that.

Who would have said something to make her think that?

"You know me better than most anyone here," he said. He suddenly felt awkward. This conversation, this place, was very intimate. The two of them alone, in a dark, secluded place… "I don't understand what you mean."

Her eyes turned to him, narrowed. "Don't do that to me," she said in a warning voice. "I know just as well as you do how to politely decline someone's question. How to slide out of answering with feigned innocence and a sweet smile. My father may be dead, but he was a barone. I've seen it done."

Zechs pressed his lips together. He hadn't realized he was doing that, but it was obvious as soon as she pointed it out that he was.

"If you don't trust me with your secret, just tell me that. I can handle that better than I can you getting angry and jealous. I don't want…" she bit her lip, resting her head back against the concrete.

This was beautiful about her. She was passionate. She had dedication to things… to people. She had such emotions sometimes… and they were so easy to read on her face. Something about Lucrezia at times like this… he wanted her to be dedicated like that to him. He wanted to know that she would be as persistent about being by his side as she was about her decision to join the military.

"Jealous?" Zechs asked softly. His query elicited no response from the young woman across from him. Was he jealous? Was he so obvious as that?

He wanted her to find him special, despite how little they really knew of each other, and despite the situation. If she could find him special, he would be so happy. The thought felt ridiculous to him, and he tried not to admit it to himself for long periods of time, but it was true.

The look on her face at that moment, as she bit her lip and looked wift from him told him that if he wanted her to find him special, he was very close to getting what he wanted.

He watched her, wondering if she had more to say.

"I don't want to wonder whether you're holding off telling me out of some sense of protective obligation. You know so much more about me, it's almost ridiculous to think that you'd do that… but…"

She seemed to sense she was babbling, and stopped, looking to the side. She rubbed her arm absently.

"I said it inside," Zechs said, finally offering words to go with the thoughts that were so heavily oppressing him. "You don't require my protection, but if you did, you would have it without the need to ask."

"So this," she straightened off the wall and reached out a hand to touch the side of his face, letting her fingers slide gently under the mask to brush the upper part of his cheekbone that was obscured. "What does this mean?"

A noise behind them echoed loudly in the evening. She tensed, turning towards it. He felt similar. They were hiding from the authority of the base. They were in the shadows. It was a strange feeling to him, to be hiding like this. More often he hid in plain sight and offered himself to his enemies. But that was only him. Relena was removed from him, and so there was only himself to care for, to worry about.

Standing there in the darkened corridor, he contemplated his companion. He desired Lucrezia. That much was obvious. It was more than just a normal attraction that he felt, or at least he reasoned that it was. His youth was idealistic in that regard. He cared for her, and there was nothing more important than those he cared for. Being in the open about this would put her in danger. Treize had said as much to him on several occasions…

* * *

Despite joining the household, Zechs was often alone, either in thought or in deed. His foster mother's requirements were simple, and though Zechs' mind was far from simple, he chose to appear so in front of her to keep from arousing suspicions. His lessons were as difficult as the young master's, though, and Treize could see through his foster brother's nonchalance.

Ten passed on to eleven, and a nightmare woke Zechs that he couldn't control, despite his usual adeptness in it. It was Treize who responded, being in a nearby room in the large manor. The older teenager smoothed the pale blond hair of his foster brother and held a glass of water to his lips. Unexpected kindness from the older boy that Zechs accepted blindly in the dark of the night.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Treize asked gently.

"Why should I want to?" Zechs asked, holding the water glass tightly.

His bright blue eyes seemed different to Treize. Perhaps it was the dimness of the evening room, but it was more likely the nightmare the boy had. Unlike other children that Treize had observed, Zechs showed no signs of outward frustration or fear. It was all only held in his eyes.

"Because you're not the simple orphaned aristocrat you make yourself out to be. I've seen you with my school books in the library."

Zechs shied away from the older boy at hearing that.

"Don't worry, I won't tell her," Treize said.

The amount of things that interested Treize could be easily summed up, if only he could find the proper words. He appreciated more than he was interested in. Beauty, for instance, was often only enough to gain his regard. Honor was higher up the list. The young boy that was sharing his family home with him seemed wealthy in both those things, but determined to hide them from older people.

It made him interesting.

Curious, Zechs inspected the sixteen year old's face. There seemed to be true sincerity in it. Treize gently took the glass from Zechs' hands. He set it to the side. Of the entire foster family, Zechs found himself in the presence of the one most trustworthy. Carefully, he thought, he could start opening up to the brother that was offering to gain his trust, but…

"It was wrong, whatever happened to send you into hiding," Treize said. "But father says that the Alliance's cruelty is just like that. I don't know that I believe him, but I do think that wars are cruel. You have to be careful with how you react to them, or people will know how to attack you."

Zechs stared at him.

"Of course, for children, that's always difficult. How did you manage to be different?"

Zechs swallowed, glancing from the water glass in Treize's hand to the older boy's face, and finally turned his eyes out the window. His expression seemed far too old for its childish visage, and the voice that spoke when Zechs responded was far too mature.

"I can't tell you how," Zechs said. "It's not something I feel like sharing… with anyone. But if I tell you who I am, you might get a little of it."

* * *

"On the shuttle to X-18999, I'll tell you," he said.

Lucrezia turned her eyes to his, and was surprised that in the darkness, she could see them through the glass in the eye holes. He was looking directly at her, and she was surprised to note that for once she actually felt a little self-conscious in front of Zechs. It was a feeling that had come upon her previously, when she saw him again on his first day at the Academy… but not one that since then had spent much time on the stage of her mind.

She occasionally felt she'd overstepped her bounds by saying something to him specific, and more than that she wanted his attention to be more like it was at that moment… but he never seemed to offer it. No, that wasn't entirely true, it was only offered when they were alone, like this. He was only truly there with her as a person when they were together in privacy.

She was so caught up in his eyes that she almost missed him moving. He caught her by the shoulders and pulled her away from the wall. The press of his body to hers was surprising. Had they hugged before this moment? Truly embraced one another?

They had danced, and after fencing… on the beach… but no, this was their first real embrace. His mask brushed the side of her face, and it was cool against her skin. Her heartbeat sped up at being this close to him. She felt awkward and self-conscious more than she ever had before… more than she ever did with Savoy's attention… The name felt alien to her, even as she thought it.

Her arms lifted from where he had them pressed against her sides, and she put them around his middle. "Do you think you can wait that long?" his voice was low, and there was a slight waver to it.

"I can."


	29. 5:5

**Bel Niente nella Guerra**

"Beautiful Nothing in the War"

* * *

**AC 192 August 31; 0600**  
Lake Victoria Specials Academy  
Northwestern Tanzania

The days leading up to the assessment were a haze in her mind. Zechs became much more silent overall, snapping answers in class and studying more and more. They were like minded in that regard, and though neither of them said they were meeting at the student access library branch, every evening as soon as exercise period was over they found one another at a table in the back and sat at the same table while going over their notes and manuals.

From the library they went to dinner, and then to the simulators. This was where Lucrezia thought that Zechs was pushing himself a little to be in her company, though she didn't say a word about it. She had been given a special dispensation to utilize the simulators given her loss of practice time because of her hospitalization. Her ID and passcode made the machines function. Zechs could enter the room, but aside from watching her, which he did daily, he could do little else.

Instead of being annoyed by his attendance, she found it soothing. The simulator chair was still a bit scary to her, despite knowing that there was no cockpit involved, and having Zechs nearby relaxed her enough that everything came second nature to her, just as it had before the accident.

Heading stiffly into the hangar, she was unamused to think that the other cadets would have a more favorable hour to be examined at. First thing in the morning… perhaps it had something to do with the idea of training under adverse conditions, but really it just made her internal clock a bit screwy. Rather than shower and dress directly before the assessment, Lucrezia got up early enough to run a lap of the barracks before her shower.

She felt fresher.

As she entered the hangar, she was surprised to find that with the technicians stood Treize. Captain Khushrenada, in the flesh.

Presenting herself before him, she snapped a crisp salute.

"At ease," Treize said as he returned her salute.

Taking the appropriate stance as she was told, Lucrezia watched the Captain. He was regarding her, and then he turned his eyes towards the rest of the hangar. He seemed as if he were going to say something profound, but the only words that left his mouth were, "I am among those interested in the outcome of this assessment."

Without more words than that, he headed for the observation tower.

Snapping a salute to the retreating figure, Lucrezia then turned and headed for the stair unit that would take her up to the cockpit. She hesitated a second before putting her foot on the step. This was a different assessment, she reminded herself. This was not like the last time.

Still, fear seemed to be holding her by the wrist as she put her foot on the bottom step and started her way up. She took a deep breath, but her thoughts swam in her head. And then she remembered…

* * *

"Maybe you should get some rest tonight," Zechs said as they reached the simulator wing of the training building. It was when he walked her places that it felt most like they were dating. If they could do such a thing as date in the military, if that sort of thing was possible given their situation…

She crossed the room and began to strap in for her simulator test. "The assessment is in the morning."

"Lucrezia, you know the Aries unit like the back of your hand."

She turned her eyes from the screens to look at him. Zechs was beside her chair, leaning slightly over to look down at her. "Power it down."

Curious, she did as he asked. He moved from her side, and she felt a little nervous at that. More nervous about him than she did about practicing. She hated to admit it, but so much more of her attention was focused on him than…

His hands covered her eyes. "Now power it back up."

"I can't see." He didn't reply, but made a noise to let her know the obviousness of the situation. Of _course_ she couldn't see, his hands were over her eyes.

"Trust yourself," Zechs said. His voice was soft, and low. She hesitated. "You trust me enough to not struggle when I take away your sight. So trust yourself like that. It'll be enough."

Her hands moved forward onto the controls, and she swallowed nervously.

Zechs' arms shifted and his forearms pressed against her ears. "The sound will be muffled," he said softly. His words said one thing, his actions another. 'You're not going to seize up tomorrow,' the touch of his hands said. And just like that, with his faith and his fingertips touching her, she'd relaxed.

* * *

It was so rare for him to say her name that the situation caught in her memory. His words were encouraging… and it felt like he was supporting her. It made her feel warm and relaxed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, accepting the memory and the way it made her feel.

When she opened her eyes, she took the steps two at a time to the cockpit. As though the thought of him had chased it away, fear seemed nowhere in sight.

* * *

**AC 192 August 31; 1200**

Walking, Zechs wasn't sure where exactly he was going. He knew he was moving forwards, he thought he was going somewhere in specific, but he couldn't manage to slow himself down enough to know where he was going. The air of anxiety on the base was palpable, but he wasn't supposed to be a part of it. His assessment was finished. He wondered how the Baronessa had done, but the thought was like a drop of water in a cyclone. As soon as it came it was swept away.

He'd been walking since the assessment. His heart was moving too fast, and he couldn't seem to slow it down.

The entire base was alien, and he didn't know where he could feel normal.

Well, that was a lie. He knew who to go to, but not where that person was. He'd already checked down by the shore. A quick scan had revealed that there was no one on the beach that he wanted to encounter. A couple of the teachers, perhaps, and so he'd quickly ducked back up the path to the base.

The library was also empty, and she wasn't at the barracks or the mess hall. His feet were going in circles, and he felt a little tired. He found himself standing in the sports green. He headed over to one of the bleachers and took a seat.

He tipped his head back and looked up at the sky. It was very warm, still.

Something shifted in the small stadium. Zechs found he wasn't alone. His eyes searched the bleachers, but there was nothing in front of him. He turned to look over his shoulder, not having been able to tell the source of the sound with the muffle of the helmet on his head. And there she was, stretched out on the bleachers halfway up the stands.

A sense of relief flooded him. He felt his expression relax until a nervous feeling swept over him. How had her assessment gone? Was she injured? Had she frozen? He had been acting, for the past few weeks, as though her passing the assessment was a foregone conclusion. That she could do nothing _but_ pass, and if she had not… If she had not passed, what of them then? He would continue, she would remain.

He frowned at himself. That was Milliardo speaking, questioning, doubting. Zechs knew better. He knew the baronessa had done fine. Or at least he was confident that she had done her best. It had always been more than enough before. He rose from his seat and headed up the bleachers, stopping at the end of her row. Seeing her there prompted the relaxation to soften his expression. He could _feel_ it.

She was stretched out like a cat bathing in the sun. Her arms were just above her head and one of her legs dangled off the metal bench she was reclined on. Her lips were relaxed.

He dared to cross over to stand near her.

"Hello, Zechs," she said without opening her eyes.

He was surprised that she knew it was him. He thought to ask a question, to query her about that, but the words didn't leave his lips. She patted the bench by her head with the back of her hand, knuckles rapping the metal gently, and went back to relaxing. There was nothing else for him to do but take a seat.

Looking down at her sleepy face, he saw the sun's influence on her cheeks. Her dark hair pooled between her hands, and a bit of sweat beaded on her brow. Zechs' hand moved almost of its own accord, and he was brushing the sweat from her brow almost before he knew what he was doing. She didn't object. He let his fingers brush her hair back from her temple a little.

The dark locks were soft.

It shouldn't have surprised him, but it did. He studied her face, and shifted his hand a little to trace her hair line, letting his thumb brush against the scar that curved her left eyebrow in a slightly different arch than the right one.

Her eyes opened, and she looked up at him.

"So," she wet her lips slightly. "How did yours go?"

Zechs felt his expression relax further than it had upon finding her there.

"That good," she said. One of her hands lifted and she brushed her fingers against the side of his face. For a moment, they stayed there like that. And then her cheeks darkened in a blush and she sat up, pulling their hands from each other. "Well I've been in the sun too long, and I need a drink."

Zechs watched as she hoped over the bleacher bench below them and headed for the aisle. She was to the stairs when she paused to turn and look for him.

"Well? Coming?"

He rose and moved to follow her, ignoring the tired feeling in his ankles.

* * *

The mess hall was quiet, which was a blessing. Some of the cadets were camping out awaiting the results of the assessment, which was stupid, she thought. It wouldn't change the results if they were diligent after the fact. It was better, though, to think about that than to let herself be caught up in Zechs' presence. It was easy, and that was scary.

On the bleachers, just before… her heart had started pounding in her chest. It really wasn't fair. He seemed so calm about things all the time. And his touch had been so gentle… so _welcome_…

But his thumb had stroked her eyebrow. Almost a question, given their new manner of talking… and she had been reminded why she was at the Academy. Why she was in the military… Why she was _not_ at home.

And that had reminded her of her brother's most recent invitation.

Their trays found the table they were going to sit at, and Lucrezia found she couldn't quite meet Zechs' eye, even through the helmet. Would Treize be going? Would Zechs? His hand reached out and lifted his water glass. His hand paused on the glass, and she followed his quiet suggestion and looked up.

"Yes?" he asked softly.

"Anto is parading me about again tonight," she said in the same soft voice. "I have to go to the sally port and pick up the dress in an hour or so."

She watched Zechs' expression, and wasn't sure what happened to change about it, but there was something about the way his lips tilted that made her think he was remembering something. Sourly, she thought he had a great advantage on her in being able to hide things. He got her whole face to analyze, and she most often only had the tilt of his lips to deal with.

"The Countess of somewhere or other is holding a…" Lucrezia turned to glance at the table around them. They were seated alone, and because of the assessment there were not bodies filling the table. There was room, and she lowered her voice a touch.

His lips were tilted in a slight smile, she noticed when she returned her eyes to him. "I know," Zechs replied.

"Am I being sent to the firing squad alone?" she asked.

"Not entirely, no," Zechs replied. "Though your brother has never been fond of me." He took a sip of his water. "Carinthia."

"What?" she asked. She had been trying to figure out when Anto had been open with his displeasure with Zechs… well, after the obvious example… and by thinking on that she had no idea what Zechs meant by naming and Austrian state.

"The Countess of Carinthia," he said, sipping his water.

The way he said it… the way that his tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth with the slur of consonants somehow reminded her of the way that it sounded when he said her first name. Her heart thumped harder in her chest at that, and she picked up her own water glass, trying to look normal.

"Although it may be a tad unseemly for you to be on my arm _the whole_ evening."

"I doubt Anto would let that happen."

"Well, I'll have you for most of it, I'm sure."

Trying to look cool was rapidly failing. She looked down at her water glass, and tried to fight the blush that was threatening on her cheeks. Lucrezia didn't know what it was about the exchange, but her heart wouldn't calm down. She hated those things, didn't she? She was angry at having to go to them, and… there were better things to…

Zechs tapped the ankle of her boot with the toe of his, and she looked up at him.

Through the eye holes of his mask, she saw the blue of his eyes clearly, and her mouth went dry. He tipped his head forward slightly, a question she might have missed before. "No, I'm… I'm fine, Zechs…"

A commotion rose in the mess hall, but she ignored it.

"If you're sure," he said, turning his head to the side to look up as one of the orderlies brought in the rosters containing the scores on the assessment. "Shall we check?"

Dumbly, almost, Lucrezia nodded. Together, almost entirely in synch, they pushed their chairs back from the table and headed towards the roster containing the outcome. Unlike the other cadets, the two of them moved sedately, side by side.

* * *

The orderly carrying the list shifted back, pushed by the crowd, and the din of the cadets overtook whatever noise of protest he had as he was moved away. The boys jostled one another in eagerness to see the list. As cadet Zechs and cadet Noin approached, however, their solemnity seemed to bleed into the cadets grouping around the rosters.

In retrospect, it would be hard to say, for any of the cadets, what made them quiet and step back. Certainly Zechs made no threatening moves towards them, nor did Noin's expression alter from the look of vacant concentration on the paper waiting in front of them. But whatever it was, even if it was just the presence of the two of them there together, the exuberant cadets quieted and parted.

The last cadet, standing next to the roster, with a finger on it, was half-turned to look at one of his compatriots when the pair of them approached.

His expression froze a moment before his finger shifted and he glanced at the paper a moment before turning to check the names on the duty uniforms of the two cadets standing before him. "C-cadet Noin," he stammered. "Cadet M-M-Merquise…"

A hush fell on the quieted cadets.

"C-congratulations, Noin," the young man before the roster said, stepping back a step and snapping a salute.


End file.
